"Y'know what?"
"There's an enormous chance that I do know, but, please, feel free to enlighten me."
Rolling his eyes, Fuyuhiko elbows Izuru in the ribs, more out of habit than annoyance, then sips his lemonade and says,
"Call me a fuckin' sap, but I kinda miss winter."
Izuru's brows twitch a little. So - he's surprised. A lot. Or maybe he's not surprised, but only decided to move his brows for one of those reasons that make no sense now, but will later turn out to be vital to the fate of the entire universe or some shit. Who the fuck knows.
As the boy besides him busies himself with, who the hell knows, compressing the new input data, Fuyuhiko digs his fingertips into the warm sand and shifts them a bit, enjoying how the light grains feel, all airy and nice, and then moves on to enjoying how this entire situation feels - shit, it's almost December, and here he is, on a tropical island, with his friends, his partner (he will not call Hajime nor Izuru a boyfriend. He will not.) and Nanami's AI keeping him company, chilling underneath the blazing sun and occasionally sending Naegi and co. ideas on how to un-fuck up the world.
"I presume you mean the atmosphere of the winter and not the weather, right?" Izuru slips the sunglasses onto his nose. "As a person of a quite… short and thin stature, you must get cold quite easily, right? And that is not a pleasant feeling." He pauses for a second, nods to himself and adds, completely putting out Fuyuhiko's ebbing offense, "I think."
"You think?!"
Time, just like it always does, passes. The small conversation is gradually forgotten as Fuyuhiko finds himself dealing with more pressing issues, such as talking Naegi out of the mindset that reopening Hope's Peak without any changes to its regulations would be a good idea.
Don't tell anyone about it, but Fuyuhiko ends up calling Naegi's associate (yeah, just like that, associate, all ambiguity implied), the original Togami kid, and having him conspire with that asshole Munakata. In the end, though, it works out. Naegi has a nice, long, public speech about how Hope's Peak will now be open for everyone, that the classrooms will be named after perished Future Foundation workers, society this, equality that. Cool. And people seem to dig it, of course.
Then, the next week, Koizumi relapses and hits Sonia over the head with her shitty Polaroid camera, giving her a nasty concussion. Both girls end up in the hospital, one unconscious, another restrained in her bed and sobbing. Hajime swears a blue streak, then squeezes Fuyuhiko's hand and gives place to Izuru. He spends the entire night examining Sonia while his partner spends the night at Peko's cottage, hiding worry behind irritation. In the end, though, it all turns out okay. Sonia's hair, still short and messy after the haircut she had to give herself after waking up from the simulation, is now pressed to her skull with bandages, while Koizumi slowly picks herself back up and takes photos of tropical fruits and rare clouds.
Life goes on.
On the beautiful early morning of December the twenty-fifth, Fuyuhiko wakes up to an empty bed. Usually, this wouldn't concern him - Izuru likes going for morning runs - but last night Hajime said that Izuru's tired of people and probably won't show up for the next few days. And Hajime himself is the exact opposite of an early riser. So, all things considered; what the fuck.
To hell with that. Fuyuhiko can start thinking about it after he gets some coffee. Bleary-eyed and yawning, he throws the blanket off himself and shuffles to the door of his cottage. Opens it. Freezes.
It's snowing. It's. Fucking. Snowing. The cottages' roofs are covered in white, the air whipping at him brings so much cold it almost makes him squeak (almost! almost, for fuck's sake!), and just- What the hell.
"What the fuck."
"Hi, Fuyuhiko," Izuru says flatly, peeking out from behind the cottage next to theirs. His expression gives away no emotions - but the tone of his voice is almost fucking pleased. Fuyuhiko gapes at him, then points, rather dumbly, at the snow, then at the cloudy sky, then at Izuru, then, once again, at the snow. And Izuru nods. "As you can see - it worked. You got your winter."
"How the fuck?!" Fuyuhiko screeches, half-convinced he's gonna wake up from this goddamn dream any second now. "We're by the fucking equator!"
"Two Super Highschool Level Lucks should not be underestimated," Izuru says, thumping his chest in a decidedly Hajime-style gesture. Asshole.
Still. What the fuck.
Watching Saionji throw a snowball at an unexpecting Souda, Fuyuhiko snickers and moves away from the window, all toasty and happy in the hotel's old building, with the chimney (honestly, the good luck) burning hot and filling the main room with a warm glow.
And then, to make the moment even more disgustingly sappy, Hajime hands him a cup of hot chocolate. Fuyuhiko nods in approval and pats his partner's shoulder, sliding to the couch; Hajime sits by his side with his own mug. They sit for a while in pleasant silence, just enjoying the sheer absurdity of the situation - and each other's presence too, Fuyuhiko supposes. They sip their drinks, watch the flames shimmy in the fireplace. People outside are laughing and shouting at each other; at one point, Sonia and Tanaka, red-cheeked and with matching grins, bust in, stay for ten minutes, ask Hajime to give Izuru his thanks for bringing the snow, then go back to do whatever the fuck they've been doing. Maybe drawing pentagrams in the snow to summon a winter tengu, or some creepy shit like that. When Fuyuhiko shares this theory, Hajime chokes on his chocolate and has to get a hearty pat on his back.
"Thanks," Hajime wheezes out, reaching out to loop his arm around Fuyuhiko's shoulder. "You're awesome."
"Says the guy who literally has all the talents available," Fuyuhiko snorts, "including the ability to fucking make it snow on a tropical island."
"What, you're not enjoying this?" Oh shit, he looks troubled now. Good job, Kuzuryuu!
"Of course I am!" Fuyuhiko spits out, hastily adjusting his eyepatch. "I'm just really fucking confused, is all. But happy too!" he adds when he sees Hajime pout. "Thank you for breaking the laws of common sense just to give me some good memories, I guess."
"Huh." Hajime perks up. "You're welcome. Now," he stands up and offers Fuyuhiko his hand, "wanna go for a walk?"
"Hell yeah I do." Smirking, Fuyuhiko intertwines his fingers with Hajime's and gets to his feet.
The first thing that happens after they get outside is that Fuyuhiko gets hit with a strong blast of chill wind - and falls onto his ass. Hajime, the jackass, laughs so hard his legs give out and he ends up in the snow drift too.
"Rest in shit, Kuzuryuu," he has the guts to say. Frowning, Fuyuhiko gets up and brushes the snow off himself, coming to the painful realization that the cheap gloves he got in the supermarket ain't exactly water-proof. Fuck.
"If I end up catching a cold, it'll be your fault," he grumbles. "And it'll be your fucking duty to take care of me, got it?"
"Yeah, yeah." Hajime reaches out to stick his hand in Fuyuhiko's jacket pocket. "I can even wear a nurse costume."
"I hope to fucking god you're shitting me."
"Who knows? Izuru wouldn't have anything against dressing up, I suppose."
"You're a dick."
"You love me though." Hajime grins. "Wanna share a scarf?"
Fuyuhiko shrugs, then watches Hajime unwrap it from around his neck. It's quite a bitching thing, tightly knitted and in a shade of green (olive? Avocado? Fuck, it'd be nice to have an avocado sandwich) that matches his eyes. Not like Fuyuhiko noticed that before, of course. He may be gay, but he isn't, like, y'know. Gay.
"There we go." Humming to himself, Hajime bundles the thing - Jesus Christ, it's really fucking long (did he make it himself?!) - around Fuyuhiko's, then around his own neck, and once again pushes his cold-ass palm into his partner's pocket. This time - the back pocket on his pants.
"Smooth, Hinata," Fuyuhiko drawls. "If I wasn't that chill, I'd punch you in the face."
"And you'd lose this," Hajime tugs on the scarf, "source of warmth. I dunno if punching me would be worth it."
"Right." Rolling his eyes, Fuyuhiko wraps his fingers around Hajime's elbow and pulls gently. "Let's go for this fucking walk then."
"Alright." Hajime looks him in the eye (ha!) and smiles. It's warm, bright and way too fucking gentle. Ugh. "Let's go."
