It was a simple thing, really.
Hibari had fallen asleep on Dino's bed again, curled up like a cat, having stubbornly refused to sleep in the guest room. He was still wearing the soft black sweater Dino had bought for him earlier that day—too big for his lean frame, the sleeves slipping past his wrists, the collar drooping enough to bare a sliver of pale collarbone.
Dino stared.
God help him, he stared.
Fingers itching, throat dry, heart thundering painfully against his ribs.
He shouldn't.
He wouldn't.
But the boy looked so small. So defenseless. Trusting him so completely that it twisted something sharp and vicious in Dino's gut.
Hibari trusted him not to break him. Not to touch. Not to ruin.
And Dino—
Dino was a fucking monster for how much he wanted to.
With a broken curse, Dino tore his gaze away, practically stumbling out of the room like he was escaping a battlefield.
He didn't even think.
Didn't even hesitate.
The bathroom door slammed behind him, and a second later, icy water crashed down over his head.
The cold hit him like a punch to the chest, stealing the air from his lungs.
He gritted his teeth, pressing his forehead against the frozen tiles, fists clenched so tight they shook.
You're better than this. You're better than this. He's just a kid. He's just a kid.
The water needled his skin, numbing the heat that had been burning just beneath the surface.
And still it wasn't enough.
Because even as the cold battered him, Dino could still see Hibari's sleeping face behind his closed eyes—the peacefulness, the vulnerability.
The way Hibari had mumbled his name in his sleep once, voice soft, almost tender.
Dino squeezed his eyes tighter, feeling something like a sob clawing up his throat.
This was the cost.
The endless restraint.
The endless patience.
He would wait. He would protect. He would suffer.
Because Hibari deserved someone who would bleed for him without ever asking anything in return.
And Dino—
Dino would give him that. Even if it left him shivering under freezing water, gasping against tile walls, aching with a need he could never allow himself to satisfy.
He stayed there until his skin was numb, until the worst of it passed.
Only then did he drag himself back to the room, back to the boy he loved.
Back to the silent promise he had made a thousand times over.
"Not yet."
Not until Hibari was ready.
Not until the day Dino could touch without fear.
Not until the weight of his love wouldn't be a burden, but a gift.
Until then—
Dino would endure the cold.
Again and again and again.