I Want To Warm Your Hands

"We are rabbits. I am plenty warm the way I was made."

"For the last time Kuro we are bunnies. You may be happy to freeze your… assets off but I know the proper way to stay warm and that does NOT involve a bare chest with frozen beads and a metal cross stuck to you! Hmph. I would expect someone of your age to know better by now…"

Taro's lithe hands do up the buttons on Kuro's jacket. It's one of the priest's own, black with golden clasps in a thick, heavy canvas material that falls below his knees at its lowest point. It's meant to be worn at ceremonies that require heavy cover - but as it turns out, snowfall in the burrowgatory is something Taro thinks is ALSO a ceremony that requires heavy cover! Kuro has been getting lectured about his choice in attire for the last ten minutes and every button pushes his buttons closer to the edge of impatience.

Kuro begins swatting at Taro's hands as he reaches higher up on his jacket, protesting that he can dress himself just fine. He is a grown man after all, as Taro pointed out s o smartly! In response, Taro's hands grasp the two ends of the scarf around Kuro's neck and yank him downward. Kuro is brought right into the pouting, grumpy face of his… friend. With eyebrows furrowed like that, bunny nose scrunched up, and lips pressed into a thin line… Ah, well. Kuro shuts up for the moment. 

The scarf in question belongs to Taro. As such, much like one can expect Kuro's clothes to be in one range of black and grey, one can expect Taro's to be a milky, ube purple. The scarf is no exception to the dress code. The base is a purple similar in shade to Taro's sweater with the length of it patterned in argyle diamonds deeper, overlapping shades of violet. It certainly doesn't match Kuro's monochrome, but the purple compliments the silver streaks in his hair and the grey fluff that runs through the middle of his ears. Not to mention… every time Kuro looks down at Taro's hands folding, wrapping, and tucking the scarf around his neck and into the top of his jacket, he can't help but imagine how he looks now emblazoned with Taro's signature color- and that thought further breaks the monochrome by adding two brush strokes of pink to Kuro's cheeks. 

"Am I warm enough for your liking now?" Kuro finally asks when Taro's hands finish tucking the scarf in and run down the front of his jacket instead. The doll's purple eyes rest on Kuro's hidden chest, like he can picture the plush hills of it just under the jacket he insisted on putting on him. Kuro notes that Taro looks even more hungry now that his body is hidden than he ever does with Kuro's chest openly on display in front of him, despite it being by his own control that the view was obscured in the first place. What an incredibly odd little bobarista…

Taro's eyes slide further down to the end of Kuro's sleeves, where his weathered hands rest bare, the smallest hint of tattooed patterns sneaking out over his wrist and the top of his hand. Air gathers in his cheeks, rounding them out even further. He shakes his head. 

"... Eh? I am covered from head to toe. I am going to overheat in this jacket and your… your scarf is on me. What more could I possibly need?"

Taro stares HARD at Kuro's hand before slowly bringing his gaze back up. His nose twitches.

Kuro works the old, rusty gears in his brain hard to puzzle the secret message Taro is trying to convey. He looks at Taro… down himself… and follows the path Taro's eyes were making to land on his hands. Kuro stretches his own broad fingers out, looking over his black nails and the wrinkled skin. It clicks. Without asking, he takes that same hand and reaches for Taro. Taro's hand is small and sits, entirely engulfed, in the palm of Kuro's when he clasps his fingers closed around Taro. 

Taro's tail stiffens behind him. His purple wings flutter, flapping together in an excited burst, and the continued wiggles of his nose are at a speed that can only match the rapid pace of his delicate, prideful heart. The younger man turns his head away, nose lifted toward the ceiling of Kuro's burrow. "Good," he huffs. "I was only going to give you a moment to work it out for yourself before I got upset. You can be smart sometimes."

Kuro squeezes the tiny hand in his grasp. Taro yelps like an imp squeaker toy.

After rolling his eyes and resisting the urge to smack Taro with his tail, Kuro changes his grasp. Taro's fingers rest in the spaces between his own and their palms are pressed flat together as he pulls Taro away from his living area and out the front door. Just outside, a sprinkle of white powder drifts down from the sky above. Taro moves closer in against the taller, warmer priest by instinct. This time, however, his nose is tilted up to watch the magical shapes as they flurry around the duo.

Kuro watches as one unique shape lands right on the plush tip of Taro's nose. He gasps at his temperature first, soft lips parting and his shoulders jumping. The smallest, slightest hint of a giggle escapes him right after. He reaches up his second hand to brush it off and it melts against his hot skin. It's hard to miss, since he's looking so closely, the way the rest of the snowflakes are falling on Taro. Kuro notes them like he would note devotionals in his blasphemous texts. His eyelashes are crystalized lavender from white snow on purple hairs. The same as his eyebrows… and the dark purple fur on the outside of his ears is the perfect backdrop for snowflakes, looking more like constellations than water crystals. Taro is… cute. He's freshly powdered - almost like a sugar plum.

"Well? There are some things worth leaving your books for after all. Go ahead, Kuro. You can say I was right. I want to hear… it…"

Taro's words trail off as he looks over to see the old man in the snow and instead finds his dark eyes staring at himself. He jumps again, not from the sudden cold of a snowflake this time. "Wh.. what?!"

Kuro realizes h o w hard he's staring. His cheeks go from pink to red in one single bunny blink and his head snaps away from Taro. "What?" he asks back.

"Why were you looking at me?"

"I wasn't. I was looking at the snow."

"Liar! I can tell where your eyes are. I have two of my own!!"

"Quiet."

"No! Tell me! Tell me why you were staring."

"T a r o."