Five Times Taiga Borrowed Tatsuya's Clothes (And One Time Tatsuya stole Taiga's)
Disclaimer: don't own
Notes: Day 29 of the 30 Day Cheesy Tropes Challenge by ghiraher on tumblr: clothes sharing
Today is an endless rush; basketball is harder against older kids and they play rough, shoving Taiga and Tatsuya and all of their friends down into the asphalt, skinning their knees and sending them rolling into the dirt at the side of the court. By the end of the day they're almost unrecognizable through the dirt that has accumulated on their bodies and clothes, all of them a sort of grey-brown color mixed in with streaks of dried blood from scrapes. Taiga's parents always tell him to play safely and stay clean and usually he does, but today it's the complete opposite.
"Don't worry; you're coming to my house, remember?" says Tatsuya.
He grabs hold of Taiga's hand and even through the layers of grime Taiga feels oddly reassured. Tatsuya's parents are neat and clean, too; what will they say?
Tatsuya's mother purses her lips and throws the two of them in the bath together, where they eventually wash clean. After they towel off, Tatsuya hands him a spare set of clothes and they fit surprisingly well (although he might not choose to wear them himself). Tatsuya grins at him.
"Brothers share everything, right?"
"Right," says Taiga.
They feel soft and warm and secure, like a tiny piece of Tatsuya himself.
His mother washes the clothes and makes him take them back to Tatsuya the next week, but Taiga wishes he could keep them.
It's not until the middle of dinner that he realizes he's forgotten his pajamas. There are worse things that could happen, especially since he lives in the neighborhood, but still somehow it's horribly embarrassing so he doesn't say anything to Tatsuya's parents. After dinner Tatsuya drags him off to the bedroom where they can watch TV and play video games, and it's there that Taiga confesses his shameful secret.
"That's okay; you can just borrow some of mine," says Tatsuya.
And just like that it's not a big deal anymore, except it is—they feel different than Taiga's usual ones, tighter and softer. But it's not a bad different and after lying on the floor playing video games for a while he doesn't even notice anymore, even when he falls asleep next to Tatsuya inside their makeshift blanket fort. It's too comfortable to even think about.
Tatsuya tells him to stay out but he's too hot-blooded to not get sucked into the fight, not when Tatsuya's fighting five of them on his own, even if he is winning. He doesn't get mad, just worried and stressed and that's what Taiga regrets—not the blood pouring from his nose and staining his white shirt, not the bruises forming on his knuckles or the dents where that guy's nails dug into his forearm.
It's kind of nice to be taken care of, though, to have Tatsuya look over every square inch of him and clean his wounds meticulously and fret over him. He'd be a pretty good nurse; it's almost a shame he's so good at basketball. Still, there's so much pain evident on his usually-stoic face that Taiga feels bad all over again when Tatsuya gently places one of his extra clean shirts over Taiga's head. He hugs him closer when his arms are through the sleeves and murmurs apologies into Tatsuya's chest. Tatsuya kisses him on the forehead and ruffles his hair.
"I'm just glad you're okay, Taiga. Please try and stay out, okay?"
"Okay. I promise."
It really is cold in Akita—hell, it's cold in Tokyo but it's not this cold even in winter. It's a climate that even after a few years Taiga's not quite used to and certainly doesn't like. How Tatsuya is able to take this shitty dark winter without going crazy he doesn't know. At least New Year's is a mostly indoor holiday; tomorrow they'll go to the shrine with Tatsuya's friends and he's not really looking forward to it but tonight they'll have time to be together, just the two of them, properly—they've had a few weekends here and there since their reconciliation (as it were) but they've been few and far between, and the aching in his heart is just beginning to subside.
This Tatsuya is somewhat alien to him, though; he's the Tatsuya Taiga's always known but a bit sadder and more resolute—or maybe he's always been this way and he never let Taiga see it. Or Taiga never wanted to see it. But this Tatsuya is also intriguing; there's something about him that makes Taiga's eyes linger on his lips when he speaks or on his hands when he's writing or fidgeting. It's tugging at the corners of Taiga's mind and he can't quite place it, and there's no use doing so now when he's wasting time with Tatsuya thinking instead.
But even with the heat turned all the way up he's shivering in Tatsuya's room; it's not because he has poor circulation it's just too damn cold here.
"You're really not a cold-weather person."
Taiga scowls. "It's not funny."
"I wasn't laughing…"
The laughter was half-audible in his voice and in his smile; Taiga crosses his arms over his chest.
"You want to borrow a sweatshirt?"
Taiga gives him a look—does he even need to ask?
Tatsuya shrugs and tosses over a grey hoodie from the back of his chair. It fits Taiga well enough, so it's got to be big on Tatsuya, but it's very snug and well-worn. It smells kind of like Tatsuya, too, faintly like citrus; he feels warmer and more comfortable already.
"Thank you."
Tatsuya smiles.
Sometimes it's hard for him to wrap his mind around the notion that he likes Tatsuya, likes him not as a brother or a friend or a rival or anything like that (well, he does in all of those ways, too, still) but as a potential romantic partner. He tells himself that he's finally gone off the deep end, that he's confusing this newfound closeness for something else entirely, that this is weird and gross. And then there are some times, most times, when they're hanging out and shooting hoops or going for a drive or playing video games or taking a walk or just talking, that it seems like the most natural thing in the world. How could he not fall for Tatsuya? How could he not want those rare smiles to be more common, to be the one who puts them on his face? How could he not be attracted to those tapered fingers and slender hips? How could he not want that cool skin against his back? How could he not want that smooth voice to whisper terms of endearment into his ear?
He's sick for making up all of these excuses to spend time together, but Tatsuya never says no. And he ends up borrowing things, pens and travel mugs and books and oversized shirts, trying to take pieces of Tatsuya with him—his roommates steal the pens and he leaves the travel mugs in the back of the cabinet and he doesn't get around to reading more than half a chapter of any of the books, but he sleeps in the shirts that smell like Tatsuya's familiar laundry detergent and are always luxuriously soft. One of these days he'll get around to telling him, one of these days when he remembers to bring back the mugs and wash the shirts.
Taiga stays over at Tatsuya's the night before he leaves for the basketball retreat his senior year; it's going to be two weeks of just teammates and coaches and he already misses Tatsuya terribly, and maybe he's a bit too clingy as they fall asleep but it's already been too much lately what with Tatsuya's job forcing longer and longer hours on him because he's new and young and him being gone all day five days a week. It hasn't put a strain on their relationship per se but it's been almost lonely, even with most of his friends out here to hang out with all day.
Tatsuya doesn't seem too exasperated with him; he's very affectionate as well, snuggling closer to Taiga than is necessary considering the heat and tracing shapes and patterns on the back of his hand with a finger.
"You know, when you're a pro the trips are going to be longer than this sometimes."
"I know." And that's even if he gets picked by a local team (or traded to one); otherwise he'll be away half the year, longer including the playoffs. He groans.
"I love you. That won't change in two weeks."
"I know. I just…"
"I know."
They fall into silence and finally nod off. When they wake up they're still tangled in each other and in the covers, another plan created by the powers that be to delay him, to tell him that here is where he belongs. It's sunny and hot and he's sweaty already and he wants so desperately to cling to this but Tatsuya is pushing him out of bed and into the shower. The water runs over him like an unwelcome drizzle when he's got no umbrella and he's five miles from home; he washes himself quickly to get out earlier, to look longer at Tatsuya over the breakfast table—yeah, he's overdoing it but Tatsuya's enjoying the attention more than a little and he can't hide it. Maybe Taiga's the one reaching out for his hand but he's the one who catches it and squeezes it tightly and shifts his fingers to lock them together.
Tatsuya's driving him over to the meet-up spot when he looks over and does a double-take.
"What's up?" says Tatsuya.
"You stole my shirt."
"I've been wearing it all morning."
"I was looking for that when I was packing the other night."
"You left it at my place last month. It's really comfortable."
It looks good on Tatsuya, too—despite being a couple of sizes too big it fits well on his figure and doesn't look awkward or too casual or anything. It's not a huge deal; it's just a purple t-shirt—and he's read in plenty of stupid magazines in the dentist's office about how wearing your boyfriend's shirt is supposed to be erotic or something, and while the target audience for those seemed to be women approaching middle age, well, it's actually not too far off the mark concerning Tatsuya. Hell, he looks gorgeous in anything but knowing that it's Taiga's shirt that he'd chosen to wear, perhaps for this reason—maybe because it reminds him of Taiga or something; maybe that's his subtle way of expressing the same emotions Taiga's had such difficulty with. The next time Tatsuya stops at an intersection he leans over and kisses him on the cheek, sloppy and wet but managing to get his point across.
Tatsuya kisses him back on the corner of his mouth and he's about to turn his head when the driver behind them honks his horn and Tatsuya pulls back and drives away. There will be ways they can make the two weeks seem shorter; remembering this moment will definitely help.