#loli writes

Shintarou had to conciously tell himself not to squish the chocolates in his hand. He was so nervous about them, even he couldn't believe how stupid he was being. It was just chocolate. Even if it was Valentine's Day... Date probably forgot about it anyway. In any case, he wanted to surprised Date with his homemade chocolates. He hoped they were okay, after all it was only his second time making them, and the first time he had Chiyoko-san's help.

When Shintarou reached the spot he and Date were having lunch together, he was greated with the usual 'Gotou-chan' and a huge smile. Shintarou smiled sheepishly, still worried about the chocolates he was holding.

Date didn't even seem to notice what Shintarou was holding. He just grabbed Shintarou's hand and lead him to a corner or the restaurant with a booth table--so they could sit next to each other. Date pulled Shintarou close to him so he could put an arm around his shoulders and kissed him on the forehead.

"I already ordered something for us," Date smiled and winked. Shintarou was about to protest when Date stopped him. "Don't worry, I promise it's really good~" There was nothing Shintarou could do but trust him.

"S-so..." Shintarou tried to think of something to talk about while they waited for their food. "It's... Valentine's Day."

"Yup," Date was almost laughing, "That's why I asked ya out today." Shintarou smiled--yes, that was obvious. But he was so nervous all he could was state the obvious. It wasn't that this was the first time they'd gone on a date, but it was the first Valentine's Day they'd been officially dating. Though there was probably a lot of their friends who would say they were an unofficial couple last year.

Shintarou decided to wait until after they finished their lunch to give Date the chocolate. He slowly relaxed as they ate and talked. When they were finished Date asked him if he wanted any dessert.

"A-actually..." Shintarou stuttered, suddenly his nervousness restored itself to how it was initially, "I... have some chocolates for you." He handed the small bag to Date, blushing furiously and extremely nervous about how Date would react. Date, however, merely gave him a huge smile and kissed him on the forehead again.

"Thanks, Gotou-chan," he leant his forehead against Shintarou's and gazed into his eyes. "You didn't have to y'know."

"I-I know," Shintarou blushed harder, "I wanted to... I... I made them myself."

"Well, then, let's try 'em," Date opened the bag and took one of the perfectly round chocolates out. "Perfectionist, as always," he commented before popping it into his mouth, "Mmm, delicous." Shintarou smiled.

"Good, I didn't taste them myself because I was too afraid I would hate them and have to start over... again..."

"Well, you oughta try it now." Shintarou expected Date to hand him one of the chocolates, so he put out his hand, but instead Date crashed his lips against Shintarou's, slipping his tongue into his mouth at Shintarou's surprise. Shintarou could taste the chocolate Date had just eaten, and he had to admit it did taste pretty good. Not that he was focusing much on chocolate at that moment.

When Date finally backed away, Shintarou sighed happily. He was both relieved and so in love he couldn't help it. Date smiled at him and mouth a quick, "I love you." Shintarou smiled back.

Eiji stopped for a bit to sit down. He reached into his pocket and gripped his had around the broken medal. It was Valentine's Day. He sighed, remembering last year's Valentine's Day. When Ankh had still been with him.

He had been mad Hina had given Ankh a chocolate ice candy. Well, mad wasn't the right word. He was disappointed. He had wanted to give Ankh chocolate. When he had been helping making chocolates for the restaurant, he made special ones for Ankh, and when he saw Ankh with the chocolate ice candy he wanted to kick himself for not thinking of that.

He remembered watching Ankh finishing off the last of the chocolate ice after work was over. Eiji was tired and went straight to lying on his bed, but he kept an eye on Ankh--or rather, Ankh's tongue.

God how Eiji wanted to be that ice at that moment. He got up and went to the drawer he'd hid the chocolate he made for Ankh. He was sure Ankh wouldn't accept it, but maybe he'd be surprised.

Instead of nicely going to give it to him, Eiji threw the small bag at Ankh. He was still a little mad--not that it was fair to take it out on Ankh, but, really, who else was he going to take it out on.

"What the hell's this?" Ankh looking at the bag suspiciously, biting off a bit of the ice he still had.

"I made them for you when I was helping Chiyoko-san make chocolate for the customers," Eiji felt himself blush a little bit. He looked away, but only for a moment to choke down his disappointment. Ankh better appreciate it or I'll make him.

"... Okay." Eiji could hear the confusion in Ankh's voice. "Why?"

Eiji turned around, fulling knowing his blush was still firmly in place. "I thought since... y'know, we're kinda... I-I just thought it would be nice, okay?" Eiji huffed, not wanting to say they were 'together' because he was fairly sure Ankh didn't see it that way.

"Oh," Ankh laughed--but not because he thought it was funny, Eiji saw that was obvious. Ankh thought it was stupid. Eiji sighed.

"You don't have to eat them. I'll eat them myself if you don't."

Ankh looked up at him finally, and smiled. "Girls are supposed to give guys chocolate on Valentine's Day, right?" Eiji was surprised at the sudden question. He just nodded, not sure if Ankh wanted an explanation or not. Though he could assume if Ankh wanted to know he would just look it up or use the detective's memories.

Eiji hadn't noticed when Ankh got down from his perch. He didn't even realise Ankh had moved until he was right in front of him, holding out the last of his ice, which was quickly melting. "Here," Ankh said gruffly. Like he felt he had to be doing this. Eiji stared at the ice, amazed Ankh would do such a thing. But he shook his head. He didn't want it.

Ankh frowned at him, but just stuck the ice into Eiji's mouth. Eiji would have laughed if he hadn't been so surprised. It was like Ankh was saying "How dare you not accept my chocolate," and Eiji had to admit that was really cute.

Pulling the stick out of his mouth, Eiji pulled Ankh into a kiss. He couldn't help but notice Ankh tasted like the chocolate ice, and it made him not want to pull away. It was so different from usual.

Eventually they made their way onto Eiji's bed and (after making sure the door was locked) had sex. It wasn't their first time of course, but Eiji had noticed Ankh had been a lot happier than normal. That wasn't really saying much, but at that moment he had seemed such a huge difference. Eiji thought maybe Ankh was starting to trust him more--that maybe Ankh was actually starting to fall in love with him. After the incident with the bird yummy Eiji quickly realised that wasn't the case.

Thinking about it in the present, Eiji thought it must have been from the chocolate. It was the first time he could think of that Ankh had chocolate, and he was sure he didn't have any after that.

Eiji sighed, pulling the broken medal out of his pocket. He clenched his had around it, "I'll bring you back. I promise." He almost couldn't keep himself from crying, but he knew Ankh would just mock him if he did. And as long as he had that medal around, he felt Ankh was there with him. As crazy as it might seem.

Heiji had known the mistletoe had been put in that spot, and guiltily he had to admit that was why he had let Kudo that way. He wanted to make his feelings clearer than he had when he’d tried to explain to Kudo his stupid little crush. But at that point he had come to realise that his stupid little crush wasn’t so much little… or a crush… or stupid, really.

Kazuha had been the one to point out the mistletoe. She knew how Heiji felt about Kudo and Heiji didn’t know whether he wanted to hug her or slug her for saying, “Now you two have to kiss!” Kudo stared incredulously at the plant hanging above their heads.

Then he started laughing, “That’s just some stupid Western tradition, it hardly applies to us…” he looked at Heiji, “Right? Besides, I’m sure no one would just kiss someone because they got stuck under a damned plant together. They’d probably just kiss someone they liked, right?” He looked around, seemingly hoping someone would agree with him. Heiji felt a little hurt. He knew Kudo wouldn’t want to kiss him, but he was hoping maybe he’d allow a little kiss on the cheek or something.

Sighing, Heiji turned away, “Y-yeah, ‘s jus’ a plant. It can’t make ya do anythin’…” but he couldn’t’ help but feel disappointed. He hadn’t known what he was expecting to happen, but he knew this wasn’t it.

He looked back toward Kudo, who was running a hand through his hair, his face red and his look unsure. Suddenly, he called over to Ran, telling her to come meet him under the mistletoe. Heiji whipped his head around to look back at him. He stared, mouth partially open. He couldn’t believe he’d do that after what he’d just said… but then again, Heiji knew he shouldn’t be surprised. He’d always known Kudo had a thing for Ran.

But that didn’t mean he had to like it. And ignoring his better judgement, he grabbed Kudo’s shirt and pulled toward himself until their mouth were touching. Heiji shut his eyes as tight as he could. He didn’t want to see Kudo’s angry face staring back at him. He had expected Kudo to punch him, or at least push him away, but to his surprise he was soon kissed back. Opening his eyes to see what exactly was happening (well, more to see if his being kissed back was really happening) he saw that Kudo’s eyes were softly shut. Heiji backed away, but Kudo grabbed the back of his head and pulled him into another kiss. Heiji didn’t hold back this time.

When they eventually parted, Kudo had an extremely shy look on his face. He licked his lips and started giggling a little. Heiji felt his cheeks burn, and smiled shyly back. He looked around at the other people at this party. For the most part, they seemed to have been ignored, however Kazuha and Ran were giggling at each other. He had a feeling they knew something he didn’t. Though it was clear to him now what that was.

“Kudo…” he tried to say something, but his mind drew a blank. He wanted to ask if Kudo liked him, but he wasn’t sure how.

“Yes,” Kudo replied. It wasn’t a question, it was a statement, “God, yes!” and he threw his arms around Heiji’s shoulders, holding him tightly. Heiji felt his cheeks burn harder, and wrapped his arms around Shinichi’s waist. He nuzzled his face into his neck and mumbled, “I love you.”

Shinichi sat reading a book on the couch like always. Once in a while he glanced up to see if Heiji was finished. Honestly, just because it was Christmas didn’t mean he needed to be so insistent on doing things like making hot chocolate and giving Shinichi gifts. Shinichi would have been just as pleased to spend the evening like any other.

Eventually Heiji made his way back to the living room with his hot chocolate in hand. He gave Shinichi a toothy smile as he set the cups down on the coffee table. Shinichi sighed, and held out his hand, clearly showing he didn’t want to have to get up to get the mug. Happy to oblige as always, Heiji picked the cup and moved closer to his boyfriend. However, as he handed it to Shinichi he didn’t make sure enough that Shinichi had grabbed it before letting go. As the mug began to fell, Heiji tried to catch it again but just ended up knocking it into Shinichi’s hand, spilling the steaming contents all over his hand and the carpet.

Pulling his hand back first out of the shock, but then out of pain, Shinichi examined his hand. The hot chocolate was hot, but it didn’t seem to cause any burns. He gave Heiji an angry look, but Heiji’s look wasn’t apologetic, it was concerned. He rushed to his side, taking Shinichi’s hand and examining it himself. “You okay?” he said, looking straight into Shinichi’s eyes.

Shinichi couldn’t help but forgive him right away. He knew he hadn’t meant to do it. “I’m fine,” he smiled a bit. “It wasn’t that hot.” Still, Heiji suggested getting an icepack or running his hand under cold water. “Hattori, I’m fine,” Shinichi half laughed.

“Ya sure?” and when Shinichi nodded, Heiji kissed his hand. Shinichi blushed, but didn’t pull his hand away.

“What are you doing…?”

“Kissin’ it better,” Heiji grinned, still holding Shinichi’s hand. He kissed it again, then slowly made his way up his arm. Shinichi shook his head, but was smiling, and when Heiji made his way to his face Shinichi gladly kissed him back: at first softly but then far more passionately.

“Someone is going to have to clean up that hot chocolate, you know,” Shinichi said once they finally broke the kiss, motioning toward the soiled carpet. Heiji merely laughed.

“Merry Christmas, Kudo.”