A/N: Some more Osoroka fluff. This takes place before they're really a couple, when they're just starting to get to know each other.

Oka Ruto has always been a strange girl.

A girl out of her time, some people say diplomatically. A lunatic, others with less tact will mutter. Some pity her, some mock her; most disregard her without a second glance. It is human nature, after all, to try and ignore the things that unsettle us, and Oka Ruto is certainly an unsettling personality.

As a result, Oka is practically a ghost in the school, with a talent for fading into the background. People may point and stare when first seeing her, but soon they grow used to her, and then they ignore her. It's a cycle she's seen repeated time and time again.

But, occasionally, she attracts the interest of certain people.

Certain bullies.

Bullies who apparently find it funny to throw buckets of water on her, shortly before class starts. Bullies who also find it funny to steal her spare uniform from her locker in the shower room, leaving her nothing to change into. She has no time and thus no choice; she'll have to go to class still dripping with water.

How humiliating.

It doesn't help that she's also freezing. Today isn't a particularly warm day, with a breeze on the wrong side of cold, and the water just makes it ten times worse. She can feel goosebumps forming on her skin, her frame wracked with shivers.

Normally she does her best to ignore such things. But today isn't a good day, today has been one of those days that's bad from the moment it begins, and she just…she just…

She's angry. Angry and frustrated. It isn't fair that people do this to her and get away with it. It isn't fair that she has to cope with this. It just isn't fair.

(Life is never fair)

Her steps are slow as she walks the distance from the shower room to the school. The world blurs around her as her eyes fill with tears, and she doesn't bother trying to stop them. What difference does a little extra water make, anyway—

"What happened?"

…Of course. Being humiliated isn't enough, apparently, so the universe gives her Osoro.

Oka slowly turns to face Osoro, biting back the harsh words that want to make themselves heard. She's furious, but not stupid, and she doesn't want to shatter whatever faint bond they've formed in exchange for the brief satisfaction that shouting at Osoro would bring.

"…Someone threw water on me," she admits. It's a struggle to get the words out; speaking is difficult on the best of days, and with a painful lump in her throat, it's even worse. But Osoro is asking her a question, and for some reason, whenever it's Osoro that's asking something Oka has always felt compelled to answer.

Osoro frowns thoughtfully. "Deliberately?"

"Yes."

"Hm." A noncommittal statement, but there's a spark of some emotion in Osoro's brown eyes that Oka can't recognize. "Don't you have a spare uniform?"

Oka clenches her hands into fists at her sides, and takes a steadying breath. "They stole it…"

Osoro freezes, and the spark grows into something more identifiable and frightening: anger. In response, Oka automatically shrinks away, bracing herself for the inevitable. She' s not sure what she's done to upset Osoro, but she knows it won't end well for her.

And yet, contrary to her expectations, nothing happens. The anger swiftly fades from Osoro's face, the delinquent shaking her heard slightly as if chasing away certain thoughts from her mind. Her expression clearing into something resembling neutrality, she speaks, voice matter-of-fact. "You can't go to class like that."

"…I don't have much of a choice," Oka refutes, even as she shivers.

Osoro frowns. With a brisk movement, she shrugs off the tattered black coat that hangs off her shoulders. Before Oka can react, Osoro has already draped it over her, the warm black fabric en-swathing Oka as she practically swims in the too-large garment.

Oka's brain briefly blue-screens, and it takes a few moments before she can find her words again. "What are you doing?"

"Obviously," Osoro replies as if this were the most normal thing in the world, "I'm lending you my coat."

Except Osoro never lends people her coat. She hangs on to the thing as if it were some priceless treasure—which it probably is, at least to her. It's a trophy from one of her biggest victories, a symbol of her status as the school's most formidable student. Oka can't remember a single time when she saw Osoro without it.

And now Osoro is lending it to her. Just like that.

Why?

"Why?"

Of course, Osoro gives an answer which isn't really an answer at all, or at least not the answer that Oka is looking for. "It'll help keep you warm. And make the water less obvious. Plus," and here she smirks proudly, "no one will dare mess with you while you're wearing it."

For a moment, Oka considers refusing. But the promise of warmth and the assurance of being left alone soon quashes that thought. Carefully, she gathers the material closer, wrapping it tightly around herself.

"…Thank you," Oka says at last, because she may not understand what's going on, exactly, but her mother still raised her with manners.

Strangely enough, Osoro suddenly looks abashed and at a loss, although she does her best to hide it. "Don't worry about it. Just give it back after classes."

"I will," Oka says, nodding. She takes a step towards the school. "I should…class…"

"Yeah," Osoro says, and nothing else. She says nothing as Oka turns away, and nothing as Oka starts walking to the school, and then they're going their separate ways without another word.

Well, Oka thinks, as she ducks through the schools entrance and makes her way through the hallways, ignoring the people staring at her, that was strange.