a/n: I know. I'm addicted to the winter-time setting. And I already did one like this, but hey, Rin is a gracious bean. XD Thank you so much for reading!

Fictober Day 26: "You keep me warm."

This weather sucked.

It was getting closer and closer to the wintertime, something that was evident in the low temperatures outside. It was barely five o'clock, and the sun was already setting. Izumo scowled. Not only was it ridiculously cold, but they had to be out here to double-check all of the headmaster's barriers. It wasn't her damn fault that something had broken through.

What was worse was that they'd been sent out to do this in pairs. Who was she paired with? None other than Okumura Rin.

"At least we're done now," Rin said when he caught her grumbling about it for the twentieth time.

She rolled her eyes and said nothing at first. She supposed it could have been worse. She could have been stuck with that pervert Shima, or clumsy Moriyama. Who knew what would have happened if she got paired with Suguro. Being paired with Rin was the luckiest she could get.

That didn't mean it still didn't annoy her.

"Yeah," she muttered with a halfhearted shrug. "It took long enough. Let's go check-in so I can go home. I need a bath."

Rin gasped suddenly, standing stalk-still. Izumo kept walking unwaveringly, and only stopped when he reached out and grabbed her wrist.

"What?" she snapped irritably.

"Look!" He pointed past her, eyes alight with excitement. "That café over there is selling hot chocolate!"

"And do you see my face? It's got 'I-don't-give-a-damn' written all over it."

"C'mon, Eyebrows! It's so cold. I'll pay for your drink! If there's too long of a line, we don't have to get any. But let's just take a look! Please?"

She gave him the most deadpan look she could muster. But then it came to her attention that he was still holding her wrist, and even when she yanked herself free, his enthusiasm didn't falter.

Inwardly, she sighed. If she refused, he'd look at her like she'd kicked his puppy. Which would be more annoying? A Rin who sulked all the way back to the classroom, or a Rin who beamed and wagged his tail like he was the puppy?

At least if he was sulking he wouldn't talk to her.

But she was cold.

"Fine," she answered briskly. "But you're keeping up your end of the deal. You said you'd pay."

"Of course," Rin said, grinning stupidly wide. "Let's go! C'mon."

He darted off toward the café without hesitation, and she would have rolled her eyes again if she had time. But he'd grabbed her arm again and was pulling her along for the ride.

Ten minutes later, they were walking out with identical steaming cups of hot cocoa. Izumo carefully brought it up to her lips, letting the sweet drink warm her up from the inside. Rin was happily swaying his hips.

"I love my sweet hot chocolate," he sang quietly, that dopey grin back on his face. "How much I loooove you. You keep me warmmm~"

"Oh, please. Just stop already," Izumo droned. "You're making me regret this."

And he had the audacity to look offended. "How could you regret hot chocolate? It's so yummy!"

"I didn't say it wasn't," she said. "I just told you to stop."

"Alright, alright. I'm stopping," Rin said, but continued to hum softly to himself as they made their way back to the cram school as quickly and painlessly as possible.

Or, rather, as Izumo tried to. But give minutes into their walk, when Rin had finally declared that it was cooled down enough that he could drink it without burning his tongue, he abruptly came to a stop.

This time, she did pause, raising a critical brow at him. "What now?"

"Oh, nothing, I just..." He paused, a frown lingering on his face. "I'll be right back."

"Jeez. Hurry, will you? It's freezing."

"I'll catch up, don't worry! Go on ahead!"

She scowled once more, not willing to admit that she couldn't go on ahead without him. Not because she was worried about him or afraid of the dark. But because she knew Rin—he'd get sidetracked some way or another, and if she didn't wait for him she wasn't sure if he'd get lost. And then his overprotective-but-not-overprotective brother would hold her responsible.

One minute. She'd give him one minute.

Shivering, she clung to her hot chocolate and watched as Rin jogged off toward some lone figure maybe twenty feet away. Watched as he knelt down to the figure. She couldn't hear a word he said, but she could see him taking off his gloves and handing them to the stranger, along with the precious hot beverage he'd so fondly sang about minutes before.

Then, with one final, reassuring grin, he was walking back toward her.

"Sorry," he said, but he was smiling ever-so-slightly. "I thought he looked really cold."

Ah. She understood now. Izumo nodded slowly, keeping up her usual mask of aggravation.

"It's whatever," she said with an apathetic shrug. "Just don't expect me to backtrack so you can get a new drink. And don't complain to me when your hands are cold."

Despite the fact that he'd seemed so excited about it, he told her it didn't matter anymore, that he was fine without so long as it meant somebody else was benefitting from what he'd given up.

That was so annoyingly like Rin.