A Sweet Pair fic for Angela, because I love her and she's my daughter. Well, er, virtual daughter? XDDD MOMMI LOVES YOU ANGELA -shot-

Jirou sometimes buys Marui candy.

It's not really a regular thing, and it's not a patterned every Tuesday sort of thing either. Jirou just comes to Rikkaidai randomly, sometimes out of the blue, sometimes calling Marui two minutes beforehand saying that he has candy available.

It's always quite a pleasant surprise to see Jirou, a guy from Hyoutei, come to Rikkaidai of all places to bring him candy, of all things. Marui doesn't quite know why Jirou brings the candy, but he appreciates it, and he saves one piece from each bag Jirou brings and puts them in a box.

Marui always saves a piece of candy from each bag that he buys or gets. He saves it because it's a memory to him, and he's afraid that when he tries new candy brands he'll forget what other candy he's eaten. He would do the same with Pocky if he could, but quite frankly Pocky isn't as easy to keep around as candy is and there aren't that many flavors of Pocky.

So he puts a piece of each candy bag that Jirou gives him into his special box, and gradually, steadily, as the year goes by the box gets fuller and fuller until Marui can barely close the lid anymore. He opens the box, and the pinks, yellows, and blues all meet him, face to face, and he can clearly remember when he got each piece of candy and what the situation was.

Jirou's visits are unexpected, but they're expected too. Marui knows Jirou will come by sometime, someday, even though a month has passed already and the boy still hasn't come.

He believes he will come, but he doesn't know why he has this feeling. He doesn't really care about the candy too much, since he knows Jirou doesn't bring the candy just to give it to Marui. He sometimes eats some too, and they talk.

"Bun-chan, what did you do today?" Jirou asks him.

"Play tennis, go to school," Marui answers. "Like always."

"I brought candy again!" Jirou exclaims, holding up his bag.

"I've noticed," Marui tells him, rolling his eyes. "Honestly, it's not that hard."

Jirou pouts at him. "What if I didn't bring candy?"

"Well, you'd still be here, wouldn't you?" Marui says, kicking the ground. "You always come and go randomly."

After Jirou leaves, Marui actually wishes Jirou would come one time without a candy bag in his hands. He wishes Jirou would just talk, just come over and talk and not give out stuff while he's at it.

There's probably something wrong with him if he's rejecting candy this way.

Marui wonders if he's normal.