They're lounging on the porch—just the three of them—while Yukine works on his new assignments and Daikoku clangs around in the kitchen. Yato sits next to Hiyori, and while she talks to Kofuku on her other side, he keeps his fingers wrapped carefully around the neck of his dark bottle of coins. It's tucked under his right elbow, well away from the god of poverty. He had been occupied counting through the earnings from granted wishes ("For the fourteenth time today," Yukine had sighed, rubbing his temples) before the other two joined him.
When Hiyori's conversation with Kofuku comes to a pause, Yato asks his idle question. It's something that's nibbled on the corners of his attention every so often, like a hungry minnow.
"Hiyori, how do you always know where to find us? Me and Yukine, I mean. You usually get here a couple minutes after we do, and it's not like our schedules really match up."
There's a bitten, panicked noise, and she goes utterly stiff, which captures his full attention at once. It was just a question—he's really not that curious. But now that he thinks about it, it does seem as though she manages to show up at Kofuku's shrine consistently around the time he and Yukine get there.
He's not invested in the answer at first, but the way her ears burn scarlet is rapidly increasing his desire to learn.
"Hiyoriin has a Yatty-sense," Kofuku chimes in helpfully, twisting pink curls under her ears and looking far too innocent.
"I don't! I don't even know what that means!" Hiyori moans, making herself as small as possible while Kofuku begins to giggle evilly.
"It's okay, Hiyori. You can admit that you stalk me," Yato teases, expecting her to react as usual: a light-hearted scoff and maybe a rapid subject change.
Instead, she turns absolutely purple, and starts pulling her ponytail down to occupy her fidgeting hands. As it swishes over her shoulder, a waft of afternoon air lifts a few of the strands towards him, and he catches a whisper of the shampoo she uses. It's a clean scent: it smells nicer than perfume. It smells like the sky.
He accidentally breathes it in too deep, inhaling audibly, and Hiyori springs up as if shot.
"I'm not a stalker, and I can't sense anything!" The blush creeps down from her cheeks to her neck, and she stares in wild misery down at Kofuku, who's now shrieking with laughter. After a beat, Hiyori whirls inside the shrine like a red-faced hurricane, muttering something about a new lesson plan for Yukine. Yato is left reeling in her wake.
"What was that?" he asks Kofuku, who throws herself, cackling, onto the grass.
