2136/Kotatsu Consolation

Kotatsu Consolation
Date of Scene:	04 December 2024
Location:	Sugata's House
Synopsis:	After This Witch Has Teeth, a traumatized Takuto goes home to Wako and Sugata ;___;
Cast of Characters:	Takuto Tsunashi, Wako Agemaki, Sugata Shindo

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Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
When he comes in the door, Takuto is shivering, his hair still damp and his face puffy. His red eyes are also rimmed with red, a little bloodshot-- he's clearly been having a time of it.

(The Ginga Bishounen, physically clean but definitely not emotionally or psychologically clean, texted in the group chat while floating above the bay in henshin. And then his phone went in the same dimensional pocket as his normal clothes, and the redheaded boy let himself drop into the frigid water.)

(Then, once he was feeling icily sparkling fresh and awake, the mental image of the worst of what he saw slammed back into place and the Star Driver flew swiftly for the shore, picking somewhere random to lose his dinner, and keep going long past there being anything left.)

(At least it kept him warm-ish, and so did the dry clothes he de-transformed into wearing-- jeans, t-shirt and hoodie and Star Driver varsity jacket. However, his hair is still wet and cold, and he's shivering with puffy face and reddened eyes.)

"I don't-- have words to talk about it," he says in an exhausted half-sigh, sagging. Neither of them have seen his face and body language look like this before: so upset, heartsick, visibly exhausted, ...small. Wounded. "Maybe I will in a minute."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Wako has not just been fretting since he texted.

When she meets him in the entrance of Sugata's mansion, it's with a fluffy towel - freshly warmed courtesy of Jaguar - which she wraps around his shoulders before she leans in and hugs him tightly.

"That's okay," she promises, talking mostly into his chest at the moment. "Let's just get you warmed up. Tiger's made tea, unless you'd rather have coffee or something."

Sugata Shindo has posed:
If pressed, Sugata wouldn't admit that he's been fretting, though of course he has. It isn't every day that someone sees a person eaten alive, and certainly not for Takuto, who saved people.

That said? He has been worrying, pacing the floors, and as soon as Takuto is there and Wako has provided the towel, he's next to her, putting a hand on Takuto's shoulder, squeezing lightly.

"We'll be here and waiting to hear what you want to share."

Now come on, into the warm and the safe.

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
Takuto folds over Wako in this hug, like she's this small bright warm hopeful living wonder he's lucky enough to have wandered into the arms of. The towel's warm and soft, and that's good, Takuto can also wipe his eyes on it so he doesn't drip on Wako's head.

His voice is very thick. "Tea-- is great."

And then Sugata's there too, and that's his hand, and Takuto leans his head to one side, shoulder up a little, to sort of awkwardly hug Sugata's hand. Between head and shoulder. He does not care how he looks.

Finally, finally, Takuto lets go of Wako (mostly) so they can walk to where there's a table to have tea on, and cushions, and Takuto's jaw is clenched to keep his teeth from chattering.

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Wako stays close, keeping an arm tucked around Takuto's waist as they head inside. The room that the pair of them steer him to has an actual kotatsu set up, onto which Tiger is just setting out a tea tray like the timing was purposefully choreographed. Wako looks away from Takuto long enough to give the dark-haired girl a quick nod of confirmation - yes, tea is good - then she's focused on scooting legs in under the comfort of the kotatsu and tugging the towel up to give Takuto's hair a quick drying ruffle.

"You're freezing," Wako observes, very unnecessarily. "No catching a cold, okay?" No questions, not until he's ready to talk about it. Tiger finishes pouring and slides a steaming teacup within Takuto's easy reach, then steps back to all but evaporate out of the room.

Sugata Shindo has posed:
The little hugging of hand between head and shoulder is very Takuto, and Sugata tentatively shifts his fingers to stroke Takuto's cheek, before they're pressing on.

To say he has any idea of what to do in this situation would be a complete and utter lie. No one would ever describe him as the comforting sort, and for good reason, but now he needs to rise to the occasion, at least to half the level Wako is managing. She's managed getting Takuto under the kotatsu and requesting tea from Tiger - he handles taking a warmed blanket from Jaguar, and drapes it awkwardly over Takuto's shoulders, reaching around Wako and the hands on the towel in his hair to do so.

And then he sits beside them, and he just looks, wordless and concerned and entirely unsure of what to do with a problem he can't get rid of with money, force, or clever <s>or not so clever</s> plans.

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
It's a problem none of them is truly equipped to handle, but when has that stopped them?

Takuto hunches over the kotatsu briefly, and then Wako's ruffle-drying his hair and scolding him gently, and the red-haired boy laughs wetly. "If I get a cold it's my fault," his congested and sandpapery voice comes out as he ducks his head, "I fell in the bay on purpose after I texted. I wasn't-- going to feel clean--"

He looks up in time to see the tea scooting closer, and there's an ocean of gratitude in Takuto's puffy-faced nod to Tiger. His hands come up to ring around the outside of the cup on the table, too hot to touch, but at two centimeters away the radiant heat is enough to start bringing feeling back to fingers...

"I couldn't be in two places at once," he finally sighs out, hunching into the blanket Sugata put over his shoulders. "There were five of us and five victims, there were what felt like a hundred giant human jaws with little pink feet, there were tiny not-hands grabbing up from the floorboards, and-- there was-- it was a giant kitchen and the plates were covered with--"

He shuts up fast and closes his eyes, then opens them again, then focuses very hard on looking at the tea and being at once grateful and disappointed that Tauburn isn't trying to help.

"Wako-chan can you stay over tonight, can we all just, hug, all night," he sort of asks, in a rush, looking anxiously up again.

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Wako meets Sugata's eyes for a moment, over Takuto's towel-draped head as he's hunching over the kotatsu. In that moment, she looks as lost as he is, because it's Takuto and maybe she's grown a little too used to thinking of him as their guiding star.

None of them are equipped to handle this, but he needs them right now, so they'll just have to do what they can.

Once his hair's at least not dripping she frees the towel from the blanket Sugata's wrapped around his shoulders and lets it drop, and she squeezes herself right in beside him under the kotatsu and puts her head on his shoulder. "It sounds awful," she says in a soft voice. "I'll stay right here, for as long as you want. That's fine, right, Sugata-kun?"

Sugata Shindo has posed:
Eye contact is helpful, if only because it affirms that they're both lost, and both determined to do something about it. Even if they have no idea what that is. It's Takuto. They will not leave him out to dry.

"Hardly your fault," Sugata denies, even as Takuto explains why it could be his fault. Maybe someone else would think throwing oneself into the bay in December was a foolish choice, but Wako has been ritually cleansing herself every morning for the vast majority of their lives. The idea of cleansing and the role water plays in it is far from foreign.

And so he listens to the broken off explanation.

And he wishes they had been there, but Tokyo is a place of many dangers and few warning signs. It isn't like Southern Cross Island, where the danger might be spontaneous, but Zero Time would draw them together regardless.

Takuto's already ended the threat, the threat that had killed in front of him, drawn him into what sounds like a hell Sugata regrets picturing, and that means Sugata can't offer to fix that. What he can offer is shifting closer, until he's pressed up against Takuto's other blanketed side, leaning in. Warm, solid, and real, mirroring Wako, though not going so far as to put his head on Takuto's shoulder.

"Of course it's fine. Nothing's going to chase us off."

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
'It sounds awful,' Wako says, against him, her head on his shoulder, and she's so warm and normal and real, and Sugata's awkwardness is embraced-- Takuto curls up in between them, and thinks he would like to stay there always.

He picks his tea up in both hands, then sips it, then sets it down again; he shivers again, but he's warming up. "It was awful," he agrees. "It was worse. I should fight more of them to get them to stop. But I also never want to see one again."

A little exhalation, and Takuto's finally starting to relax between them. He wiggles his toes under the kotatsu, and he's quiet.

Eventually he says, "Extra movie night then?" with a thick little laugh. "Something cute..."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
"Extra movie night," Wako agrees. "We can marathon cute movies all night until you get sick of them or it's time for breakfast, whichever."

She doesn't ask anything else about the Witch. Takuto clearly doesn't want to think about it, and frankly, Wako's not sure she wants to either. Her arm rests against Sugata's around Takuto's back, the both of them leaned in from either side.

" And maybe skip class tomorrow," she says instead. "One day won't be a big deal, we can get someone to bring us whatever notes we miss."

Sugata Shindo has posed:
"Next time, we'll be with you," Sugata promises, because he wouldn't be himself if he didn't pick up the thread of the fight, if he wasn't the brutal pragmatist. There will be a next time.

But Takuto won't be the only one of them out there, when it happens again. They'll be with him, through the horrors.

"We have that stack of Studio Ghibli films Jaguar bought," he suggests, rather than continue on with that thread. He leans in, rather than stand, and around Takuto's front, his hand clutches Wako's, the two of them keeping him warm between them. "Plenty of those are cute."

They aren't going to school tomorrow unless Takuto wants them too. They'll stay under the kotatsu, and then in the bed, until he's ready to face the day again.