Notes:

+ I thought I was done writing fanfic for a while but I guess not lol

+ Alternate title: Tail Game Too Strong

+ Alternate title#2: Dat Tail

+ Alternate title #3: I Shippo It

+ Based on a really cute fanart that I found by 小豆 on Pixiv eeee

+ Slight spoilers for chapter 38+.

+ I hope you enjoy (◡‿◡✿)

Tail & Roof

Yato had discovered it by accident.

"I know you're stealing them!" Yukine was shouting, and Yato was rolling his eyes, crossing his arms.

"Am not!"

"Then where did all my money go? It didn't just wander off by itself!"

"I don't know what you expect to happen to your money when you hang around here so much," Yato sniffed, and when Daikoku's eyes narrowed he gave a nervous laugh.

"I-I mean — thank you so much for your hospitality! Kofuku! Daikoku-san!"

"Ohh, of course! It's never any problem at all, Yato-chaan," Kofuku purred, and that's when it happened — she leaped for him, arms wide — Yato was caught off guard — she gripped his arm happily —

And a torrent of coins sluiced out from the edge of his sleeve.

"I knew it!" Yato and Yukine cried out simultaneously as the coins clinked and hopped and rolled into shadows.

"You asshole!" Yukine shouted at Yato.

"You impoverished —" Yato shouted at Kofuku, before Daikoku shot a sharp glare.

"Just pick them all up!" he boomed.

"Not you!" Yukine snapped as Yato bent eagerly.

"All of you! Not you," Daikoku said to Hiyori belatedly as she began to collect the coins nearest her, and she smiled.

"It's fine, I can help." Help make sure Yukine gets them back, she added silently.

"Not you either," Daikoku said as Kofuku began to struggle lifting up a coin that was stuck flat to the floor.

Winter was petering out and Hiyori guessed it was one of the last days they could enjoy the heat of Kofuku's kotatsu. Hiyori collected as many coins as she could closest to her, and then yawned and decided to relax. It had been quite a long day — first dealing with her schoolwork, then with Yukine's — and she slid her legs underneath the table and rested her head down on folded arms.

One nice thing about being in spirit form was that she didn't have to worry about taking herself home, even when it was dark; at some point her spirit just floated back on its own. As she started to dose, the tip of her phantom tail began to flick. Back, forth. Back, forth. Back...forth...

Her eyes widened; she sucked in a breath.

Something had grabbed her tail.

It's a kotatsu demon! she wanted to shout, but when she opened her mouth nothing came out but a choke. It felt like she had been plunged into water — like any words she spared would drown her — she felt her tail being constricted and she put her hands to her throat, coughing.

"Hiyorin?" Kofuku had noticed; she peered over, head tilted. Her mouth moved and she appeared to be speaking further but her words were lost against the booming of Hiyori's heartbeat in her ears.

Finally the grip around her tail loosened. Hiyori's breath burst out of her; and then she held it again as the grip changed, lightened. Now instead of a suffocating clench, the feeling that moved through her was gentle, warm — it ballooned, rising from the base of her spine, moving both up — and down —

"Hello? Hiyoriiin?" Kofuku called again. "Are you alright?"

Hiyori opened her mouth to reply and, to her horror, all that emerged was: "Haah —"

The pressure ceased. The kotatsu blanket beside her wriggled, and Yato burst out of it.

"H-Hiyori? What was that noise?"

"N-n-nothing!" Hiyori whipped her tail out and clutched it against her heaving chest. She struggled to control her breathing, which was mysteriously ragged. "Wh-what were you doing down there?!"

What had happened to her? "I was just...trying to..." He had just been trying to find one last coin he had seen roll beneath the kotatsu. He held it up indicatively, brows furrowed as he thought. Her red face...stammering...and the fluttering of the tip of her spirit cord...

He had felt something pretty soft down there, but had just assumed that it was part of a blanket or something. What if it had actually been her cord?

And...the sound of her voice while he had been down there hadn't been particularly startled. Rather, it had sounded kind of...

"Hey, Hiyori. Let me see that," Yato said thoughtfully, holding out his hand.

"W-what?! My tail?"

"Yeah, your cord. Come on, hand it over."

"No way!"

"Come on, just a little —"

"Get away from me!"

"There's something on it! I can see it!"

"There is not! Go away! You idiot!"

Hiyori stood, huffing, and bounded away as Yato continued shouting and running after her.

"Hiyori! Just let me see it for a minute! A second! A heartbeat!"

"Hiyorin is really a reluctant type, isn't she," Kofuku said thoughtfully, putting a finger to her mouth. "Hmm. It will take forever at this rate."

"What will take forever?" Daikoku asked, confused.

"Quick," Yukine muttered, wandering in from another room, "give me all the coins you find, before that asshole god gets back."

:::

She managed to fend him off successfully that day, but after that he tailed her, waiting for her to leave her body.

"Feeling sleepy, Hiyori?" Yato asked, keeping up as she shouldered her way briskly through a crowd the next day.

"Nope."

"How about now?" Yato asked, half-materialized and smiling broadly when she opened her locker.

"Not even a bit," she said, grimacing and slamming it shut on his face.

"How about now? Your day's been pretty tiring, huh?" Yato asked, hovering over her shoulder during class.

"It really has," she muttered, rubbing her forehead. When he kept hovering, she took out her phone beneath her desk, navigated to a page, and showed it to him. He peered over curiously.

It was his Twitter profile. Her thumb was hovering over the unfollow button.

He paled. "You wouldn't."

Her thumb twitched and he started. "Okay, okay, okay! I'm going. I'm going." He vanished.

She checked her phone later and her mouth made a thin line.

Hiyo let me see your cord

Hiyo just a little bit

Hiyo come on

Hiyo trust me

Hiyo ～（ゝ。∂）

yato N O

"Why not!" Yato cried behind her, appearing from nowhere, and she whirled on him with a glare.

"Because you're being annoying!"

And because the more he followed her, the more she was reminded of that too-warm feeling. Because the more she saw him the more she thought, Maybe it would be okay. Maybe I should just let him…

Do what? she demanded herself. Let him do what?

Touch her. And…

"S-seriously," she said, flushing, "go find someone else's tail to play with."

"I'm not interested in anyone else's cord," he muttered, but she was already storming home.

:::

She had so much to do that Yato was the last thing that she wanted to worry about — much less the tail-induced feeling that she had had the day before. She went to bed nervously, but the night, and the whole next day, passed uneventfully — with no sign of Yato at all, or his tweets either (though she refreshed every hour just to make sure).

Strange. But welcome, too. Godless days were productive ones. She returned home and worked on homework, nervously peeking over her shoulder. By the end of the week she had finished not just everything due but half of what was due next week as well.

Where was he? He hadn't disappeared — she still knew his name. (Yato, she recited to herself, Yaboku.) It wasn't likely that he'd gone on a mysterious trip again. And still no mentions on Twitter.

Well, if he was really leaving her alone...

She pushed her chair back from her desk — gave one last glance back and forth — then stood, leaving her body drowsing in her chair. She looked around as her tail shook free. Still nothing.

She looked down at it. Her tail...her cord. She sat down at the edge of her bed, watching as it eased itself beside her. She barely even thought of the way it moved, before — the same way she might not think of breathing — but now that she was aware of it she could make it rise, smoothly, into her open palm.

It had felt really nice before, at Kofuku's place. She pursed her lips, set her tail in her lap, and began to run her hand over it cautiously, just feeling the tips of its fur against her skin. Finally, eyes squinched, she pressed down on it.

A tingle shot up her body — fuzzy, fizzy — she shivered, and continued, petting it, and then sighed in annoyance, feeling silly and frustrated. This wasn't the right feeling. An echo of it was there — but not the full thing — not the bright feeling that had made her head feel light...

Something in her itched uncomfortably, and she scratched and rubbed her belly to no effect. She reached for her phone and refreshed her messages and mentions. Nothing.

She patted her tail again, feebly. How had he done it? It had been so gentle...and yet...

Refresh. Nothing.

They hadn't spoken in days. Maybe he was just not speaking to her because he was busy.

Refresh. Nothing.

So itchy.

She missed him.

"Yato?" she whispered, just in case he was actually here, hiding, but he wasn't — she should have known — she couldn't smell him here.

It was getting hot. She opened up the window and took a deep, restorative breath — and then, swallowing, took another breath, through her nose. And another.

There. There he was.

She leaped out into the evening light.

:::

After Hiyori had rebuffed him Yato had dragged himself back to Kofuku's place to sulk.

"Don't worry, Yato-chan," Kofuku told him cheerfully. "Hiyorin's the reluctant type!"

"The reluctant type?"

"Yuup! So don't force it. Leave her alone for a little, okay?"

"Yeah, sure," Yato muttered, already typing a message to her on his phone, and Kofuku puffed a cheek out in irritation and snatched his phone from his hands.

"Hey! Give that back!"

"I won't! Just take a little technology break, Yato. It'll be good for the relationship." Kofuku was smiling, nodding to herself proudly. "Yup! That's exactly what it needs right now."

"B-but what if she messages me?"

"I promise I'll give it back the moment she does," Kofuku told him. "And in the meantime, don't bother her either."

"No way Yato will be able to do that," Yukine laughed, and Yato turned on him.

"What did you say, you little brat?"

"I said," Yukine told him, "there's definitely, absolutely, totally no way you can stop yourself from being a pestering, harassing, annoying bug to Hiyori."

Yato seethed and behind him Kofuku nodded enthusiastically, making a thumbs up. Encouraged, Yukine continued.

"Yeah, um — so much for being a delivery god — you're more of a stalker god! A troublesome, annoying, uh, too-determined —"

"Shut up! I definitely can leave her alone!" Yato shouted, "just watch me!"

"Ha," Yukine snorted, "you mean you want me to watch you sulk and whine like a baby?"

"I'm not going to whine about it!" he whined back.

And before he knew it, days had passed.

She's going to forget. She's going to forget. She's —

Stop, stop, stop. He markered up his name around the city to distract himself, and managed to convince Kofuku to give him his phone back so he could receive calls from his loyal followers. She did return it, but not before deleting his Twitter client and Hiyori's number.

"I'm serious," she had told him. "Leave Hiyorin alone."

"For how long?" he whined. "What if she forgets?"

"She won't! Hiyorin is a strong girl. Give it a week at least," Kofuku encouraged.

That had been four days ago. Yato sighed, and sat on the edge of Hiyori's school's roof. It was empty already but here he could imagine he was somewhat close to her. The evening was fairly warm, with a good breeze, and, listlessly, he checked his phone again, taking a deep breath to calm his nerves when there were still no messages.

Maybe he really had overdone it with the cord thing. But the way she had sounded — he reached back through his memories, trying to grasp it. It had definitely been a gasp of pleasure...right? Hearing her at the time, something in him had jarred and lit up. He wanted to hear that sound again.

"As expected from a devoted god of happiness," he sniffed to himself.

But. He crossed his arms over his bent knees, rested his forehead down. What kind of god of happiness wasn't missed when he was gone? Ah, this sucked. Fuck Kofuku, fuck Yukine, fuck all of them, he was going to visit her tomorrow —

— and yet. What if she really didn't like him? What if this time she was spending away from him was something she was really enjoying? His mouth thinned. No, he couldn't visit her. Couldn't bother her. Couldn't force her to make smiles for him, spend time with him, couldn't make her say his name —

"Yato?"

"H-H-Hiyori!" He straightened immediately, standing, looking around. Finally he saw her, behind her, balanced easy on the fence that bordered the walkable area of the school roof.

"Hey," she mumbled.

She was really here. He laughed in bare relief and happiness, and she flushed at how his face lit up, how he jumped onto the fence in front of her.

"You must have been busy with work...so...sorry if I'm bothering you," she said, still mumbling, and he was confused until he remembered that he hadn't been messaging her.

"Ah — yeah," he said. "Right. I've been really, really, really busy. But of course I always have time for you," he added. She was really here. He cleared his throat and turned away to keep a ridiculous smile from showing.

"So...sooo, Hiyori! What can I, Yato, the happiness delivery god, do for you?"

She shifted her weight from foot to foot, and then said something, very quietly.

"What?" he asked, turning back toward her. Her cheeks were red.

"I said..." She hesitated. Ah, just say it, just say it. "If you're still interested in seeing my tail, you can. If you want."

"Oh..." He looked down. She was wearing shorts and he could see the tail twisting shyly around her right ankle. Her skin looked smooth. He swallowed. "Ah — ah, sure. Let's go down there," he suggested, and she nodded, and they jumped down to the main roof area.

They stood there and after a while Yato said, "Um, why don't we sit?"

So they sat, and after a while Yato said, "Um, okay. Give it to me."

She was sitting cross-legged beside him, looking determinedly at her hands in her lap. Without looking, she made the cord drift up to him, and when he grabbed it she cringed and whipped it back out of his hand and clutched it to her chest.

"H-hey! Be gentle with it!"

"Right! Sorry!" He had just barely closed his hand around it. "Here, give it again."

He reached toward her — hand precariously close to her breast — and she released her tail and let the tip of it meet his fingers. This time he touched it like he might a dandelion puff, and waited for her body to relax.

"Has it been hurting or aching or something?"

"No..." It wasn't her tail that was achy, anyway, but she didn't offer any other details.

"Well, you wanted to see it, right?" she demanded after he didn't do anything else. "Do whatever it is you wanted to do with it."

Hiyori was quite red — and sounded uncharacteristically annoyed. Yato grinned at her.

"You know, I really just wanted to see it...I thought I saw something on it before, but it seems okay now. Is there anything that you wanted me to do with it? I mean," he said, "it's perfectly fine, right? Not achy or anything?"

She glared at him and he beamed at her. Finally she started to mumble something and he leaned forward to hear.

"Um...I guess the truth is that it has been pretty achy..."

"Oh, really? Where?"

"...um...all along it..."

"Hmm…all along it…" Watching her carefully, he held her cord in place with one hand and ran the other one across it, barely pressing. She inhaled as he went, slow, feeling his touch like a tickle all across her back. Still not quite.

"A little harder," she said, "just a little," and he made a loose circle with his thumb and index finger around the middle of her cord and stroked it again, towards the very tip. Her shoulders bowed and tightened, and he stopped.

"It hurts?"

"Not really," she said, "well…kind of…yes."

What was she doing, letting him play with her like this? One missed motion and she might get separated from her body forever, right? Not to mention the sheer gall of asking him to touch her. He tried touching her again and fear and shamefulness made her recoil. He paused, observing her, thinking.

"Okay," he said, "come here." He waved his hand at her, gesturing for her to come closer, and she scooted toward him as he indicated, setting her back to him, his crossed ankles at her shorts. Once settled, he raised his hands to her shoulders, and began to rub them, thumbs probing between her shoulder blades.

"Relax."

"Okay." But her shoulder muscles were still hard.

"Relax," he repeated. "Take a deep breath."

And when she did as instructed, he set his mouth beside her ear.

"It's okay. I won't hurt you," he said quietly. "I never would."

All I want is to make you the happiest person in the world.

He made spirals with his thumbs, continuing to massage her, and finally he felt her muscles loosen, felt her breathing grow deeper. He switched to scratching down her back with one hand, lightly, and she sighed with delight. It felt nice — warmth and little tingles wriggled across her shoulders. He saw the goosebumps rise on her upper arms, and then lifted her cord again with his free hand, circling it and stroking up, even more gently, barely touching. It was a strange thing — it didn't have much of a consistent texture — at one moment it felt like cotton, at another like mist, at another like warm feather down.

She held her breath, clutched her arms. That feeling — yes — it rippled down her thighs and up each vertebra, and she felt her body ringing like a bell, muscles quivering so fast they felt almost numb. Her body trembled — her hair shook — the breath she'd been holding burst out of her, her voice curled around it in a whimper, and he felt his cheeks redden. Oh no. She was so cute.

"Come here, Hiyori," he murmured, and he tugged her shoulder to turn her toward him. He uncrossed his legs and bent his knees, leaning against the roof fence, and he pulled her toward him, closer, closer, until she sat against him, chin resting on his shoulder, head tilted so her nose pressed against his tattered scarf.

She inhaled indulgently and the smell of him filled her and her head grew even lighter.

Could she take a little more? He set his other hand to her cord, prodding his fingers against the base of the tuft of it, and she shuddered against him; one of her hands raised against the front of his jersey and gripped it. Each time he pressed his fingers in she felt little pressures across her body, little phantom caresses that left her skin feeling fuzzy and staticky. He began to rub his thumb against her tail, just barely piercing into its outline, and it felt like he was nudging at something at the very center of her. Her legs shifted as the area between them began to throb. He flushed as her exhalations began to stagger against his neck.

"Just like that," she breathed, "j-just like that," and he swallowed, feeling his body grow uncomfortably warm as she pressed her forehead against his throat and began to gasp down his collarbone. Her hands began to tangle up in the fabric of his jersey, pulling tighter as he increased his speed, nudging, nudging, and the feeling at her center began to swell outside of it and balloon across her body with aching, wonderful tension, seeping into her arms and legs and toes and fingertips, stuffing her, brimming up to her brow, until she felt like — at any moment — she was going — to —

She cried out as the heat accumulating in her burst; the force of it made her spasm and Yato yelped as she grabbed him around the chest, clutching so hard that he coughed. He released her cord and put his arms around her as she trembled and panted against him, her whole body rising up and down with jagged breath.

After a while her grip slackened; her hands fell to his waist, still held around him.

"Thank you, Yato," she mumbled.

"You're welcome," he told her. Her brow rested still on the front of his neck and he rested his head on hers contemplatively. After a while he cleared his throat.

"You know, Hiyori…I wonder…"

"Hmm?" She looked up at him, and he gave her his best cheerful expression.

"Maybe...you might be able to touch my tail too…you know?"

"Your tail…?" Hiyori's narrowed with thought; and then widened when she realized. She turned an instant and lovely shade of red and her mouth opened and shut ineffectually.

"Okay," she managed after an embarrassing amount of time. "I'll do it."

"O-okay? Really?" he said in shock.

"I'll do it," she said, holding out an empty palm, "for five yen," and he stood frantically and searched his jersey. No matter how many pockets he inverted, all he found was lint.