Day 5 of HitsuKarin Week 2014. Prompt: Walk a mile in the other's shoes.
He's hanging out with Karin at the ice cream parlour when he notices, summer heat snaking its way down his spine and casting shadows on the tarmac. He sees her silhouette, and then glances back at her, his eyes following the slope of her legs, watching the way they swing back and forth, white laces flying in contrast to the bright and bold red… things on her feet.
"You have the strangest shoes."
"They're called sneakers." Karin tells him, focused on her mint green dessert, destroying the spherical curve in spoonfuls. "So? You have the most boring shoes I've ever seen, and I don't comment."
He's never noticed before. This is what dating does, it makes him notice. And he's been noticing the good, the bad, and the strange plenty.
"I don't need flashiness. I need sturdy." He says with conviction. His plain black shoes are very sturdy.
Karin grins, looking up at him at last, the corners of her mouth twitching like she's ridiculously amused. Like he said, strange. "Really now? And who's to say that my sneakers aren't both?"
He looks at her hard, trying to see if she's lying to him. She licks her light green lips, and he'd take that for an invitation any other day but right now he has to suss her out. He looks back to her strange shoes with deep suspicion.
It's absurd.
They're just—fancy and bright red—and an odd match with her uniform.
He frowns. "Are they?"
"Yup." No longer outstretched, her feet decide to perch under the chair. "I've joined the soccer team officially now. And I can run really well in these, so, yeah." Karin shrugs. "It's not like I'm breaking the rules, wearing them."
"I see."
"Also they're really comfy." Karin says, slipping one shoe off, the laces still tied, and holding it to him for closer inspection, which he does, albeit warily. "Check out the sole."
No matter how he looks at it, it's a strange design.
Noticing his scepticism, she suggests. "Tell you what, we can trade shoes."
"Are we even the same shoe size?" He wrinkles his nose.
"We could still try." Karin's grin widens, like it always does before she dares him to do something stupid and he's too proud to not do it. "Unless you're chicken?"
"I didn't say that." He grumbles, and begins taking off his shoes, untying the laces instead of pulling them off because he is a gentleman who believes in taking shoes off properly and with correctly exercised patience.
"Awesome. If they don't fit, then we'll just swap back." She blows him a kiss and he narrows his eyes. "Besides, it'll be fun!"
Drily, he comments. "It always is with you, isn't it."
"Yup."
He sighs, because it's hot, it's summer, and yet again, he's doing something stupid like trying on his girlfriend's sneakers and—
They fit.
They actually fit.
He can't believe they actually fit.
His toes wriggle, and it's odd. Wearing strange sneakers are… squishy. There's no other word to describe it. How does Karin get from day to day walking to school in such strange squishy shoes like sneakers?
"I feel so much shorter now." Karin complains, eyeing his black shoes with wariness.
At least there is one perk to the absurd situation. He's taller than her, for once.
"How unfortunate." He says, and fails abysmally to hide his glee.
Karin shoots him a look.
When Momo and Matsumoto had talked to him about the dating life, they'd mentioned that it was cute if clothes were swapped. Usually there was a noticeable size difference like—oversized sweaters and too big t-shirts. He'd ignored them, but he'd wondered. Still. They'd never mentioned shoes.
Then again, Toushirou rationalizes, Karin was pretty unconventional, and he had always liked that about her.
"It's only temporary." Karin smirks. "Anyway, now you can say that you're dating someone shorter than you, half-pint."
"Who's the one dating this half-pint?" He retorts, lightning fast.
She sticks her tongue out, sounding oh-so-innocent. "But I'm not the one with the height complex, am I?"
He glowers, and then settles for shrugging, wordlessly lifting a shoulder and letting it fall.
"Now," Karin sweetly says, "be a good boyfriend—"
"—and walk your girlfriend home, I know." He finishes the sentence for her and slips his hand in hers, pulling her from her seat, her ice cream eaten at last.
He only feels a tiny bit stupid when it becomes apparent that his feet have been swallowed whole by red marshmallows, but then Karin is swinging their hands back and forth, and stomping awkwardly about in his black shoes and Toushirou figures that there's no place he'd rather be than here with her and feeling a bit stupid is worth it if they're being stupid together.