"Achoo!"
Zero Two groaned, pulling the blankets she had wrapped around her body even closer to herself. "Stupid Miku. Stupid cold." She grumbled under her breath. "Stupid winter." With a scoff, she threw herself back onto Hiro's bed. "This sucks! Why doesn't this shitty dorm have heaters? I'm freezing!"
"Stop whining. You're fine." Ikuno absentmindedly called out from where she was sitting at Hiro's desk, reading one of her lame books.
Without even lifting her head from the bed, Zero Two's hand reached out to grab a pillow and seamlessly chuck it right at Ikuno's stupid face.
"Ow! What the hell?"
Ignoring Ikuno with practiced ease, Zero Two burrowed her face further into Hiro's covers. She breathed in happily, taking in the comforting scent of her darling.
Ikuno sighed as she tossed the pillow back with a roll of her eyes. "No need to be so disagreeable." It bounced off Zero Two's prone body with a muted 'pomf.'
The pink-haired girl held up a finger in both indignation and protest, her face still buried in Hiro's blankets. "I'll have you know I actually have a fever!"
"It's a cold at best, and you being whiny at worst…" Ikuno thought for a second. "...or is it the other way around?"
"I am miserable!"
"You're grumpy Miku shoved some snow down the back of your neck..."
"I am freezing!"
"...which you responded to by picking her up and putting her upside down and headfirst into a snowbank."
"And this weather is making me depressed!"
"You're just being mopey because Hiro went out without telling you."
Zero Two groaned. "Jeez, Ikuno, no wonder no one likes you."
Ikuno let out a long-suffering sigh, beginning to get out of Hiro's chair. "You know I could just leave, right?"
"Wait wait noo! I don't wanna be alone," Zero Two pouted, sitting up from the bed and hugging the blankets close to her chest to stare at Ikuno with her best puppy-eyes look.
With a roll of her eyes, the bespectacled girl sat back down. "You're lucky you're so cute," she grumbled.
A cheeky grin was her only response from Zero Two.
"You alright there, Hiro?"
"Yeah, yeah, I got it."
"Oi, stop moving around so much!"
"Not our fault you're so short."
"Say that again, you piece of-!"
"Can you two shut up?"
"Alright guys, on three."
"One…"
"Two…"
"Three!"
With a combined grunt of effort, the five male members of the Student Council heaved the massive box down from the back of the truck. "Oof, that's heavy," Zorome muttered. Futoshi grinned in response. "But it's gonna be so worth it!"
Hiro waved to the driver. "Thanks again!" He called out with a smile. The truck driver nodded in reply before starting up the engine and driving off. Turning back towards the other guys, Hiro beamed. "Now we just gotta carry this back."
Running a hand through his hair, Mitsuru sighed. "Easier said than done."
"Aw, come on, don't be such a downer. We got this!" Hiro exclaimed with a grin, pumping a fist into the air.
"I am not as physically capable as you, alright?" Mitsuru snapped right back.
"Guys, calm down," Goro laughed. "I know for a fact we have a dolly in the shed. We can just use that and everything'll be a piece of cake. You got the keys, Hiro?"
"Right here," Hiro said as he held up the lanyard around his neck, slightly shaking it so that the keys clinked against each other. "We'll be right back, guys."
"Yeah well hurry up, I'm freezing here," Mitsuru grumbled, brushing some snow off his shoulder as Hiro and Goro left.
"Oh boo hoo, is pretty boy cold?" Zorome taunted with a smirk, Futoshi snickering in the background.
"Bite me." Mitsuru snarled back.
A couple of minutes (and several arguments) later, the boys were finally able to get both the box and themselves into the dorms and out of the cold. "Finally," Mitsuru breathed in relief after kicking the door shut, rubbing his arms to hopefully stop them from freezing entirely. "Damnit, I was hoping inside would be a lot warmer," he muttered, glaring at Hiro as the taller boy cheerfully took off his outer layers like the temperature didn't bother him.
The heads of Kokoro, Miku, and Ichigo poked out from the dining room door. "Whazzat?" Miku asked.
"'Gee guys, welcome back! I hope you didn't have too hard a time outside in the freezing weather!'" Zorome squeaked out in a comically high-pitched voice, his hands daintily held up.
Miku rolled her eyes. "Answer the question, you ass."
"A better question is why you look like shi- oh jeez."
"Mitsuru, are you alright?" Kokoro worried as she fussed over the pale-faced and red-nosed boy, brushing snow off of him.
"No. No, I am not alright. I am freezing."
"Here, come with me," Kokoro smiled, gently pulling him towards the kitchen by his hand. "I'll make you a cup of tea."
"So what is that?" Ichigo asked, approaching the remaining three boys after a rolling pin wielding Miku chased away Zorome.
"Kotatsu!" Hiro cheerfully replied as he used his keys to cut open the box's tape, revealing more boxes inside.
"Kotatsu?"
"Yep!"
Ichigo rolled her eyes. Figures that Hiro wouldn't be the one giving her a straight answer - he always acted strangely during wintertime. She raised an eyebrow towards the other two.
"I saw that a couple of them were on sale while getting groceries earlier today," Futoshi explained with a grin, "so after coming back I got all the guys to come with me to go get them."
"Ahh," Ichigo nodded in understanding, halfway pulling out one of the boxes to read the description. "A couple?"
"Yeah, bulk sale and all that," Goro smiled. "Pretty great deal if you ask me. We got one big one and a couple of smaller ones."
"I don't think kotatsu are the kind of thing that can or should be sold and purchased in bulk, but I also don't know enough about kotatsu to having anything to say on the matter…" Ichigo shrugged, letting the box she was looking at drop back in. "Oh well. Let's get the big one in the living room, and whoever wants one of the smaller ones can take them."
"Mind giving me a hand, Futoshi?" Goro asked as he struggled to pull out the largest box. "Hiro already ditched us."
The other two looked around, but the black-haired boy was already gone along with one of the smaller boxes.
"What the heck?"
"This is bullshit."
"You're just bad," Zero Two retorted, mockingly sticking her tongue out at Ikuno.
"Pah. It's all RNG - you just got lucky." Ikuno snapped back.
"For the past five matches?"
"...shut up."
A knock at the door distracted the two from their very one-sided Pokemon match.
Ikuno glanced at Zero Two, who shrugged in response. "Come in…?" Ikuno hesitantly called out.
Hiro entered the room, carrying a box in his arms. "Don't know why I have to knock to get into my own room…" he grumbled under his breath, placing the box by the door and turning back just in time to catch a flying Zero Two.
"Darling!" She happily cried out as she threw herself at him.
"Oof!" Hiro grunted before grinned down at the girl in his arms. "Heh, hey Zero Two."
"You're back!" She cheered.
"I'm back!" Came his equally excited response.
"...and I'm out," Ikuno muttered with a roll of her eyes, slinking past Hiro.
The small smile on her face was undeniable, however, and did not escape Hiro's notice. He tilted his head towards the bespectacled girl and beamed. "Thanks for keeping her company, Ikuno."
She lazily waved her hand in response. "Yeah, yeah, my pleasure," she replied, shutting the door behind her.
"Where were you?" Zero Two whined, snuggling into his warmth. "I was so cold and lonely and miserable and outside was so freezing and meanie Miku put snow down my neck and I got even colder and angry and-"
She pouted when Hiro chuckled, interrupting her ranting. "Darling, you're supposed to listen to me complain," Zero Two complained, but she couldn't help the loving smile that spread across her face - a smile that was mirrored by Hiro.
He laughed out loud this time. The warmth that spread out from deep within her chest at the sound made it impossible for her to even pretend to be upset, so she decided to just hug her darling even tighter.
"Sorry, darling," Hiro grinned, cupping her face with one of his hands and softly brushing back and forth on her cheek with a thumb. He leaned down to rub their noses together. "But you're just so cute."
He straightened up - despite Zero Two's very loud and vocal disagreement with this course of action - and made his way towards the box he had left by the door. Or rather, tried to, were it not for a very determined Zero Two clinging onto him with her arms wrapped around his waist.
"Zero Two, I have to show you what I went out to get," Hiro said, exasperatedly smiling down at the pouting girl attached to him.
"Nooo~! Darling spent an entire afternoon away from me, I won't let anything take darling's attention away from me any longer!"
"Trust me?" Hiro smiled - the one he saved specifically for her - so a blushing Zero Two had no choice but to begrudgingly release her hold.
"Hmph."
Hurrying over to the box, Hiro was quick to tear it open. Zero Two watched with reluctantly curious eyes, her confusion growing with each subsequent item he pulled out. First a thick looking blanket, next a cord, then four metal leg-looking things, followed by a small tabletop, and finally a metal frame with what seemed like a heater in the center?
Eventually, her curiosity got the better of her. "What is that, darling?"
Hiro beamed. "It's a kotatsu!"
"Ko-what-su?"
He laughed. "Yeah, I had a feeling you wouldn't know what these are. They're basically tables with a built-in blanket and heater."
Her cyan eyes lit up. "Finally, a heater in this awful place!" She suddenly deflated, frowning as a thought came to her. "Why didn't you just get a normal heater instead of all… all this?" Zero Two wondered, gesturing at the mess of pieces and parts that was the unassembled kotatsu. "Seems like a lot of work for a simple solution."
"Well," Hiro began, a knowing smile on his lips. It seemed Zero Two was losing interest, but he had the perfect trump card. "Kotatsu are notorious for being great places to cuddle under."
Her enthusiasm returned tenfold.
Hiro dug out the instruction manual. "Alright, it's been a while since I put one of these together, so let's see… okay, so you first flip the frame and put in the legs, then-" Zero Two snatched the pamphlet out of his hands.
"Uh."
Her eyes flew through the instructions before tossing it aside just as fast, assembling the kotatsu in record time. Finished, Zero Two slipped underneath the blanket, patting the spot beside her and staring up at Hiro expectantly. "C'mon darling, hurry!"
"Well okay then."
As Hiro knelt down to enter the kotatsu, he was rather suddenly pulled into Zero Two's lap. He rolled his eyes, half-heartedly trying to free himself from her embrace.
"Zero Two…" he warned, but the smile on his face ruined an illusion that he disliked the current situation.
She hummed in response, too occupied with pushing her nose into the crook of his neck and basking in both his warmth and scent.
"Come on, Zero Two, I can't even feel the heater."
She let out a painful sigh, releasing him from her hold. As Hiro settled in under the kotatsu, Zero Two patiently watched. A sudden thought came to her, something she had been wondering about for a while now.
"Hey, darling? Why are you so much cheerful during winter? You've been acting so energetic ever since it started snowing."
Hiro opened his arms towards Zero Two, who instantly jumped into his embrace, snuggling close to his side.
"Well, I guess it's because it reminds me of you."
"Of me?" Came her incredulous reply. When she thought of herself, she thought of sunshine and rainbows and warmth and general perfection, not cold and dark and snow.
She pouted. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Hiro laughed, his body shaking with mirth. He could easily tell what had just gone through her head. "Winter isn't that bad."
"Hmph!"
Hiro hugged her closer, so Zero Two had no choice but to melt into his arms.
"It's more like, winter reminds me of the first time we met," he murmured into her hair, placing a kiss against the silky locks. "And because of that, winter makes me happy. After all, it's when I met the most important person in my life."
Zero Two blushed. She pressed her face into the side of his neck in a pitiful attempt to hide her red face.
"I… I guess winter isn't so bad."
Hiro chuckled. "No, I guess not."