Authorly preamble or something: Written for Valentine's Day of 2007, so this is both old and out of season – awesome! But it still makes me smile, so bear with me. :)

An Unexpected Gift

"Buchou."

The thing about Echizen Ryoma was that he always liked to get the best of a person. He was the kind of person who simply always had to win. He liked people to know how he was getting the better of them, too, to make sure they were fully aware of their inability to prevent his victory as it was occurring. But what Tezuka realized as he turned upon hearing his name (well, it may as well have been his name) was that sometimes Ryoma liked to take someone completely by surprise.

"Echizen?"

"Happy Valentine's Day, buchou," the boy said, holding out a tissue paper monstrosity with both hands.

Tezuka had received chocolates from more girls that day than he'd like to admit, but none of them had been wrapped quite like that. His eyes narrowing critically, Tezuka decided it was rather likely the boy had wrapped... whatever it was by himself.

"You do know Valentine's Day is when girls give gifts, right?" Tezuka had somehow managed to keep his features composed; the effort it was taking to not laugh at the younger boy was nearly killing him.

Ryoma shrugged, frowned, and gave Tezuka a very unambiguous 'do you want it or what?' look.

After holding the boy's eyes for a long moment, trying to determine if it was some sort of joke, Tezuka finally accepted the gift.

"Open it," Ryoma said, less a request than an order.

Although Tezuka certainly didn't appreciate the tone, his curiosity was getting the better of him. Tugging the curled ribbons free, he allowed the crumpled, pale pink paper to fall to the floor.

Huh.

"Chocolate sauce?" he asked finally, beginning to wonder again if it was some strange joke he simply wasn't getting. "What's this for?"

Ryoma removed his hat in a smooth, practiced motion, raised first his chin, then his eyebrows in a rather suggestive manner, and met Tezuka's eyes.

"Buchou," he murmured in a low voice, and ran his tongue slowly across his upper lip.

It took all of Tezuka's willpower to stop himself from mimicking the motion.

Oh.

Well, then.