Advanced Happy Valentine's~ !

Title: 02/14
Author: Spare
Word Count: 1373
Rating: PG
Pairing: Souji (Main Character)/Yosuke.
Notes: Otherwise known as the OP Valentine Cheat Fic! from page 18 (I think) of the badbadbathhouse livejournal kink meme. Spoiler warnings for Naoto Shirogane… not that it actually is a big, big secret in the US version.

02/14
Tuesday. Sunny as heck.

Yosuke Hanamura took one look at the box, blinked, then looked again. Then looked up at the expectant face of the owner of the hand that had proffered it.

He told himself he wasn't panicking. Nope, there's no way he could be.

"This one's for you," Souji repeated, looking slightly puzzled by his friend's obvious reluctance to accept the gift. As if Yosuke was the one acting strange, and a guy giving what evidently was handmade chocolate—carefully wrapped in bright red paper, delicate satin ribbon looped across it, no less—to another guy (on Valentine's Day, man! Valentine's!) was perfectly acceptable, perfectly normal.

"Uh..." Yosuke faked a cough, avoided his friend's smoky gray eyes, and looked hastily around the otherwise deserted rooftop.

No one there to bear witness. Thank God.

"It's from Nanako," Souji filled in, rightly reading his friend's confusion, and deciding to clarify things.

Yosuke blinked again. Oh.

He almost laughed out loud in relief. "I-I knew that," he lied, and swiped the box from Souji's outstretched palm. Glad to know all was right in the world. He smiled. "Nanako-chan made this herself, huh?"

"I helped out a little," Souji admitted, almost shyly, or so Yosuke would have noted had he not trained himself to avert his eyes from things deemed dangerous to his heterosexuality. "But yeah, she did most of the work."

"That's cool." Precocious as his best friend's younger cousin was, you could hardly expect a kid from elementary school to make chocolate all by herself. So yeah, Souji helping out was okay. And never mind if Yosuke has known him long enough to know how his 'a little' usually meant 'a lot'; he found no need to bring him to task for it today.

It turned out Nanako-chan had made chocolate for all the guys in the team—even Teddie, who had decided to spend the entire day in the real world just for the express purpose of receiving free candy. Teddie was almost comically ecstatic upon receiving the gift, as if what looked like a sizeable chunk of Junes' chocolate inventory going to his furry paws weren't enough.

Stupid bear got way more chocolate than he did; imagine that. As for Kanji—well, Kanji had glared at Yosuke and stalked off, muttering darkly, before his senpai could even get a word in. Last he'd heard from Rise, he had disappeared from class, apparently too pissed at the world to mind his attendance record. Souji and Naoto—even if she was a girl—were neck and neck at the top spot, naturally. By the end of the last class, Souji's seat resembled a veritable mountain of gift-wrapped chocolate. And that goes without mentioning the ones stuffed in his shoe locker, or at the back of the classroom, or at Yosuke's own desk, seeing as it was right behind his chair and was the next immediately available spot for the excess.

Not that Yosuke felt miffed to have to accept chocolate not really meant for him or anything. What are friends for, right?

"Still, how the heck are we gonna carry all this stuff home?" Yosuke exclaimed, once the last of the day's drove of adoring females had left, and it was only him and Souji in 2-2. The student council was considerate enough to provide shopping bags for the chocolate the male students received, but that still left them with the dilemma of carting the candy.

Souji laughed. "That's what I'd like to find out, myself," he said, scratching the back of his head self-consciously.

"You should've turned at least some of them down," Yosuke pointed out, although it was pretty much after the fact. "I mean, if you don't return their feelings—" he trailed off, but only because Souji had shrugged and was shaking his head.

"Tried that already," the silver-haired boy explained wryly. "They insisted I accept them anyway."

Yosuke mock-sighed. "The trouble with being the most popular guy in school," he melodramatically proclaimed, then chuckled as Souji made a largely unsuccessful attempt at lifting several bags full of gift-wrapped chocolate.

"Help me," his friend said, and while he really had the right to sound irritated at that point, Souji didn't. Honestly, sometimes he was just too nice for his own good. Yosuke supposed that was part of his appeal—with the ladies, of course—but the dude could go way beyond overdoing it.

"I am, I am," Yosuke assured him, laughing a bit more, and taking three good-sized bags to lug around.

No way to go around it; even with the two of them, it'll take at least two more trips to and from his house to get everything. Resigned to their fate, Yosuke examined the nearest bag, recognizing one of the boxes easily; it was practically identical to the chocolate Satonaka had given to him—store-bought, mercifully enough, as were the ones from Amagi-san and Rise. Naoto hadn't given any chocolate so far as he knew, which was perhaps cold, but typical, though if the young detective was feeling generous enough, she can certainly share a whole lot.

Yosuke had a sneaking suspicion that Satonaka and the rest of the girls had offered to walk Naoto home on the off-chance of that happening. Apparently, eating chocolate made for a guy was unthinkable, but eating chocolate given to another girl was perfectly fine. And Naoto-kun had looked like she didn't really care either way.

At any rate, that left him and Souji no choice but to go home together. Which was what they did, albeit in a much slower fashion than usual, encumbered as they were by all the candy.

The sun was already setting at the Samegawa by the time they reached the riverbank near Souji's home. Yosuke had barely even noticed it. They'd talked all the while—well, Yosuke had done most of the talking, while Souji had nodded and responded with a line or two, content to listen and absorb whatever mundane idea his best friend of almost a year or so thought to bring up.

That would probably explain how Yosuke's earlier issue with Nanako-chan's chocolate came out; he'd run out of any other topics to discuss, and really, now was a good time to laugh it off as any.

"Man, I thought for a second that—you know," Yosuke exclaimed, keeping his tone light and cheerful as he recalled his total misconception. He uttered a short, self-deprecating laugh. "I really should thank Nanako-chan, huh, partner?"

"Yeah, you definitely should," Souji replied.

"Far out!" Yosuke agreed. "I mean, what was I thinking? There's no way you'll give me Valentine's chocolate, of all things! That's for girls, right?" He laughed again. It sounded too loud for some reason, and though Yosuke didn't like that, his brain was trying hard at the moment not to recall how he'd said that same line before, a few months back. He'd been crying, and Souji had—

"Yeah," Souji concurred, mercifully cutting into his thoughts. "That's for girls."

They've finally arrived at the doorstep of his uncle's house. Souji stepped ahead, his half of the bags in tow, and Yosuke moved out of his way. To his surprise, however, Souji didn't reach for the door. Instead he turned around, slinging the bags of chocolate easily over one shoulder, and faced Yosuke.

"This one's from me, though," Souji declared softly, a gentle, perhaps hopeful smile flitting over his handsome face. Then he bent forward, leaning closer, and gave Yosuke a kiss.

On the lips.

Well, just a quick, awkward peck, really, but still.

Souji.

For a long, seemingly endless while, Yosuke could only stare at his friend's face, dumbfounded, and blink.

Souji didn't seem to take notice, or mind. He turned round once more, towards the door, cool and calm and collected as always. As if a guy stealing a kiss—his first kiss, dammit!—from another guy (on Valentine's Day, too!) was perfectly acceptable, perfectly normal.

It wasn't, Yosuke's mind would insist a heartbeat later. If his hands weren't occupied at the moment, he would have lifted a finger over his still-buzzing lips.

He smiled in spite of himself.

It wasn't, but he could get used to it real quick.

- END -