Hitohito x Shuuko LMAOOOOOO

[After chapter 85 of Komi-san wa, Komyushou desu]

Tadano Hitohito was, once again, walking down a snowy road. Perhaps he was admiring the starkly white scenery of his hometown. Perhaps he was reflecting on the strange turn his life had taken since that fateful day he encountered his socially-challenged friend, Komi Shouko. Perhaps he had finally given in to his sister's badgering to buy her some ice cream, despite it being it one of the coldest days of the year. Only one of these options is correct, by the way.

"Sigh..." vocalizing his acceptance of his current situation with a small puff of steam, he continued his trek down to the corner store. It was after turning the final corner that he spied a familiar figure walking down the road laden with even more bags than he had seen her carry the night before.

"Komi-san!" he called out, causing her to jump. Despite the distance and heavy coat and scarf covering her up, there was no mistaking the long, slender legs belonging to the girl he'd now known for the better part of a year. Actually, wait, that part made it sound like Tadano looked at Komi's legs often enough to recognize her by them! That's definitely not the case here, alright!?

"F-Funny seeing you again so soon!" he managed to stammer out. It seemed to be more and more difficult for him to converse with Komi one-on-one as the school year went on, for reasons he went out of his way not to think about. "Thanks again for the sweet potato. It was really tasty!"

After spouting an embarrassingly normal line Tadano already regretted, Komi finished turning around. He saw an uncharacteristically expressive look of confusion on her cat-like eyes, before turning to recognition, and finally amusement. "Komi-san?" he asked.

"..." Eventually the girl's face, flushed from the cold, settled into the more neutral expression he often saw her with, and gave a quick nod.

"Oh, good. N-Not that I didn't recognize you or anything, you just seemed a little different for a second there. Well, it is getting cold out, after all!"

"..." she gave a simple shrug in response, adjusting the multiple grocery bags in her hands.

"Ah!" Tadano said, finally taking notice of them. "Bringing home food again? I'm not doing anything important right now," and at that moment, Tadano Hitomi got a little irritated for some reason she couldn't explain, "so I could help you carry them home!

"O-Or not!" he said, after a beat. "Since you said you were fine last night and..."

"..." Tadano was cut off from his rambling by another nod from Komi, holding out one of her hands. He couldn't help but notice how the red lines against her palm made by the thin plastic straps contrasted against her pale skin, and the slender fingers gently curled against them.

...And after shaking off that thought, he looked again at the two sets of bags she was carrying.

"I can take that one," he said, pointing to the much larger bag held in Komi's other hand. "It looks a lot heavier."

"..." Komi tilted her head in response, looking slightly concerned.

"I-I'm not that weak, you know!" Tadano said, feeling offended on behalf of his masculinity. "It wouldn't be right to let you carry that one!"

Although Komi's scarf completely covered her face, Tadano could swear that Komi was wearing a smile as she turned to bring the bag closer to him. And while it might have just been a winter gust passing them by, it looked like Komi's cheeks were burning even brighter than before.

Forcing himself to look away from the sight and hoping he wasn't as flushing as much as he felt he was, he blindly grabbed at the offered bag of produce and other sundries.

As he reached his hand over, Tadano briefly had a flashback to his middle school days when he had a much more... active imagination, and oft-contemplated in his head the various kinds of outcomes that could happen when manga characters (often boys) reached without looking towards other characters (often girls).

While Tadano had been ruthlessly suppressing such thoughts thoughts Komi, as he had been ever since his crossdressing (???) childhood friend Osana Najimi began to wear his (?????) very... unique brand of fashion, he was still a teenage boy with all the hormones that came with being one. As such, when his fingers brushed against not icy plastic but shockingly warm skin, all rational thought immediately ceased.

Yes, Tadano Hitohito had managed to completely miss grabbing Komi's shopping bags and latched onto her hand, instead. There was no time to begin to panic. Fight had knocked itself out, and flight had already fled the building known as Tadano's brain. All that was left was the most primeval survival instinct left to animals who are confronted with a situation beyond their comprehension: Tadano froze as solid as the icy snow around them.

Despite this, his eyes slowly, inevitably tracked upwards, terrified of knowing what kind of reaction he had induced in Komi yet unable to keep himself from it.

Her eyes, wider than he had perhaps ever seen them before, slowly crinkled into a smile. He was once again struck by how openly Komi was wearing her expressions today as his heart skipped another beat. Even if she seemed different today, that strangely feline impression she gave off at times was as strong as ever. Predatory even, some voice in the back of his mind suggested.

"..." And before Tadano could muster a word to try to explain himself, Komi simply tugged at his hand wrapped hers and set off, leaving him stumbling to stay grasping her warm, warm hands.

Everything was simply happening too fast, Tadano thought, despite their sedate walking speed. It wasn't until they were nearly halfway to Komi's house, a walk of only several minutes, that he was able to (pathetically) articulate himself.

"Komi-san..." he began, only to see her glance back at him, smile with those cat-like eyes once more, and. Lace. Her. Fingers. Between. His.

Tadano was sure that spring would be coming momentarily from how much heat was exploding from his face. Surely his scarf would soon ignite from these temperatures capable of melting steel and immolate him alive, sparing him from trying to figure out what in the hell was going on!?

And yet, before he could recover from this relentless assault on his very being, a familiar-looking house was before them. After what could have only been minutes? seconds? hours? Komi gently extricated her fingers from his completely limp grip, before facing him completely.

In the diffuse winter sun, her skin seemed even more milky white than before, her features more mature, refined. As if each snow flake falling on her had added its beauty to hers, until Tadano could have sworn she wasn't even the same person. In fact...

"It seems we've arrived, Tadano-kun." The voice was huskier, deeper than any Tadano had heard from Komi's lips. No, wait, it was too different! But despite that, still familiar! Just what-!?

"I hope you pay Shouko as much attention as you do me, Tadano-kun," she said. Tadano completely and utterly froze once more as Komi SHUUKO, his friend's mother who looked barely a year older than his classmate, pulled her scarf down and leaned in to whisper directly in his ear, "Thank you for the help."

And as she pulled back, he felt a gentle brush against his cheek of something soft and fiery hot. In what seemed like an instant, Komi Shuuko was already at her front door, open and halfway inside. She gave him one last grin from ear to ear that looked more like a fox's than a cat's, and disappeared.

Trembling, he brought a bare hand to his cheek. It came away glossy, pink, with confusion and excitement. When Tadano Hitomi berated him on his lateness nearly a half-hour later, she had to stop and ask if he had a fever, from how hard he was blushing.