The shivering had gotten worse by the time they reached the apartment block. His teeth were chattering as Koushiro wordlessly fumbled with his keys and thrust the door open, practically dragging Taichi inside. This was Koushiro at his most calculated and closed off – caught up in a problem which needed fixing. Taichi followed mutely into the bedroom. Past experience had told him that there was no derailing Koushiro once he got that invested in something.
"You'll need to take those wet clothes off," Koushiro said briskly. "I'm not sure I have anything much that will fit you for you to wear instead, so you should wrap yourself up in the bedsheets to start warming yourself up again. I'll fetch a towel so you can dry off, and then I'll put some tea on. A hot drink is probably a good idea at this point."
Taichi stared at him blankly. It was hard to follow Koushiro when he got like this, and it was harder still when he was shivering so much that the warmth of the apartment seemed to burn his skin. At last his brain caught up, and he reached down for the top button on his shirt. His fingers were numb, and shook so much that he could hardly hold it, let alone unfasten it. Koushiro watched him struggle a moment, brows locked in a deep frown, then reached out and grabbed his wrist, towing him from the room.
"New plan," he announced in the same, matter-of-fact voice.
Taichi let himself be guided to the bathroom. This was all going wrong anyway, so what could make it worse?
"Okay, I'll get some towels. Don't worry about your clothes, just empty your pockets and get in the shower until the warm water stops the shivering. The important thing is to get your body temperature back up – and you're soaked through anyway, so it won't make much difference."
How the hell did Koushiro do it? Once again, this was a situation in which anyone else would be either panicking (Jou, for example), or making a fuss of one sort or another (Mimi or Sora would probably be urging him to hurry up; Yamato would alternate between voicing concern and calling him an idiot). Koushiro just... got on with it. As though this was something which happened all the time.
He realised he'd been staring at about the moment Koushiro tutted loudly and turned the water on, before pointing to Taichi's pockets.
"Give me your phone, and your wallet. I'll see about getting them dry."
His hands had enough co-ordination left to extract both, although he didn't hold out much hope for either. Koushiro accepted them, and put them on the side of the sink before placing both hands on Taichi's shoulder-blades and pushing him into the shower. He yelped – the water was painfully hot on his cold skin.
"Stay in there until the shivering stops," Koushiro instructed through the glass of the shower door. "It's hardly ideal, but it's easier than the alternative."
The burn of the hot water faded after a few minutes, and he realised that it had in fact only been warm. When the feeling returned to his hands he shut it off and stood, dripping, in the shower for a moment. Koushiro had placed a couple of towels by the door and left.
It was strange as all hell to be getting undressed after a shower – and in Koushiro's bathroom too – but at last he found himself mostly dry once more. The warm part wasn't fully there yet, but at least he wasn't quite as cold as before. He wrung his underwear out as best he could before putting it back on with a grimace. Damp and uncomfortable or not, there were some lines he had absolutely no intention of crossing.
After drying his hair as best he could, and wrapping the towel around as much of himself as was feasible, he wandered out of the bathroom to find someone. It was quiet in the apartment - apparently Koushiro's parents were out for the evening. He hadn't even thought about that before; too busy shivering from the cold to focus on anything more than wanting to be warm again. Koushiro was waiting in the kitchen. He held out a steaming cup as Taichi walked into the room.
"Drink," he said. "The shower might have warmed you enough that you got the feeling back in your hands, but there's no sense taking chances. If you hand me your clothes I can set them drying."
Taichi handed over the sodden pile of clothes in his free hand, and mutely accepted the cup. He hadn't seen Koushiro presenting such a carefully blank and expressionless face in years. He certainly couldn't ever remember being on this side of it.
What would be worse? The thought that Koushiro was acting so matter-of-factly because he was covering up for feeling awkward and uncomfortable around him, or the thought that this really was back to business as usual, and their whole conversation hadn't even made a lasting impression?
I never should have gone out this evening, he thought, walking into the dining area and sitting at the table. The tea was hot, but not undrinkable. He nursed the cup in his hands after taking a sip, letting the warmth seep into his skin, and staring down at the liquid inside. When Koushiro sat opposite him, he heard rather than saw it.
"I set your phone drying in a bowl of rice, and your wallet is laid out so the air can get to all the compartments." Koushiro spoke clearly, his voice level.
Taichi nodded, keeping his eyes on the cup in his hands. "Thanks. You didn't have to go to all that trouble though. I'll head off in a bit."
There was a sigh from across the table.
"Your clothes are completely drenched, and it's still raining almost as hard as it was earlier, Taichi. I checked the weather, and the forecast shows no sign of it letting up for the evening. Unless there's some pressing reason for you to be at home which is worth your courting hypothermia twice in one night that I don't know about, I really do think it's more advisable that you stay here. Now. I'm sure I've got a shirt somewhere which will fit you; at least that way you'll have something more than a towel to wear until your clothes dry."
Taichi gritted his teeth as Koushiro spoke, and nodded instead of replying. He was not going to say anything to make an already awkward situation even worse. He'd done enough of that recently.
His resolve lasted through Koushiro finding a shirt (too small to fasten the buttons at the front, but at least it kept his back and arms warm), all the way up to the point where they were sat back at the table and he was asked if he wanted anything to eat, since Koushiro had somehow noticed that he'd just been picking at his food during their gathering earlier.
"Look, would you just stop?" he said at last, looking up from the second cup of tea he'd been presented with. He met Koushiro's startled eyes for all of a second and then looked away, focusing instead on the pair of hands neatly clasped across the table.
"Stop what?" Koushiro asked, sounding for all the world as though this were just some regular conversation, and Taichi wasn't sat there dressed in a towel, and a shirt which didn't even do up.
"This!" Taichi exclaimed, pointing at him. "You're doing it again! That whole 'Nothing happened, I'm just going to totally blank everything about the last few weeks' act you have going on. And don't try and tell me you're not doing anything, because I know you better than that. I might not be a genius, but I'm not stupid. You're closing me out."
Koushiro raised an eyebrow. "In fairness, Taichi, you can hardly claim to have been doing anything different." The closed-book face was back, as though that momentary lapse into surprise had never happened.
"Yeah, I can actually," he found himself saying. After two weeks, he was done with holding back, no matter what the consequences. "I get that ignoring you was kind of a dickish move, but it wasn't this. Can you at least be honest with me? I mean, jeez. Get annoyed; tell me I'm an ass; tell me I'm making some huge scene and you think I'm stupid; tell me you want me to back off or whatever, and I'll do it, I swear. Just…don't act like nothing happened, because something did happen, and I can't just sit here and pretend that everything is all normal after that! I mean-"
"Kiss me."
Taichi fell abruptly silent, his hand landing on the table with a thunk. His mouth opened and closed silently a few times, all the words having run out.
"…What?" he managed at last.
The faintest hint of red washed across Koushiro's cheeks as he raised his eyebrows. "I'm not in the habit of repeating myself you know," he said, his voice almost passing for normal. Almost.
"No, I mean… why?"
This was just ridiculous. As if the evening wasn't surreal enough already. Part of him wondered if one of the side effects of hypothermia was hallucinations.
Koushiro sighed, and leant back in the chair with his arms folded. Taichi knew that one. There was a speech incoming.
"Well it has become abundantly clear over the last few weeks that you harbour a desire to avoid me which stems from the, ah, incident at Mimi's party. This was of course then exacerbated by my reaction two weeks ago when…well, suffice it to say that the unexpected nature of the situation led to a poor choice of words on my part, and the resulting miscommunication directly led to your rash actions this evening - and it hadn't escaped my notice that you appeared to be ill at ease in my company even before your abrupt departure. Actually, that reminds me. Yamato seemed to be under the impression that I was angry about the fact that I had to escort you away from Mimi's party. I'm not sure why he thought that, so I did make a point of correcting him before I left the restaurant. But as to your question…I suppose I had considered that all this stems from a rather abrupt decision I made without full access to the information I possess now, and while naturally neither of us are able to reverse decisions made in the past, there is an opportunity present to prevent this estrangement from continuing-"
Taichi held up his hands and gestured for Koushiro to stop talking. Honestly, they'd be there all night if he let the guy continue.
"So. Let me get this straight," he said, mentally translating Koushiro's speech as best he could. "Are you saying that you want me to kiss you just to…what, because you think that will stop me avoiding you?"
"Well, broadly speaking I guess that's one way of putting it-"
Taichi leant forwards, placing both hands on the table. "Even though you already told me you don't see me as more than a friend and you're basically never going to because you're, what, asexual? What kind of asshole do you think I am, exactly?"
He was livid. Livid and hurt. It was bad enough that he'd finally confessed his feelings only to be turned down, but now Koushiro apparently thought he was the kind of guy who'd just…just take advantage of someone like that? Coming from one of his best friends, the betrayal was almost too much. If he hadn't been sat there in a pair of slightly damp boxer shorts and a shirt which didn't fit, he'd have walked out - rain or no rain.
The anger lasted right up until he met Koushiro's eyes. Taichi had never been particularly good at staying angry with Koushiro - although he'd certainly worked on seeming angry over the last few years, just so people didn't notice any difference in how he acted around him compared to the others. Still, until that point he'd really thought he had good reason to be furious. And then there he was, sat opposite Taichi, eyes wide with honest to God shock. He'd never seen Koushiro look so totally thrown off by a turn of events. What the hell was going on in his head?
A.N.: Following on from the last chapter's note, yep, I've done the whole "I am so cold that the warm air burns" thing too. That's about all though. I honestly do not recommend getting in a shower fully dressed as a treatment for hypothermia, but hey, Koushiro is not Jou.
Also, any and all feedback or opinions are welcome! Also also, many thanks bobbyneko for your kind words. Honestly, it means a lot to hear that people are enjoying this, because it's soooo far from the sort of thing I usually write. I'm really glad you've enjoyed it so far!