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Gonta is in the middle of adjusting the humidity for his snail tank when he feels a tap on his shoulder. When he turns to see who has tapped him, he smiles brightly down at Shuichi. “Hello, Shuichi! Did you need Gonta for something?” he asks. “Gonta was just adjusting snail tank humidity.”
Shuichi’s smile dims a little as he looks over at the tank curiously. “Are snails insects?” he wonders aloud, hand coming up to cup his chin thoughtfully.
“Oh, no, they aren’t! But, Gonta help care for them while Gundam visits Novoselic with Miss Sonia!” Gonta explains, glancing back at the slimy creatures. “A lot of people think snails and slugs insects, though, so Gonta learn a lot about them.”
At that, Shuichi smiles again. “I have something for you, Gonta.”
A gift? Gonta doesn’t know what to say as Shuichi reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a little ladybug. For a second, Gonta believes it’s actually real, but when Shuichi hands it over, Gonta can see that it’s a pin. He rubs his thumb over the careful painting of dots on the bug’s wings. “Shuichi likes bugs, too?”
Shuichi averts his eyes, looking back at the snail tank as he rubs the back of his neck. “I just saw it and thought of you. Actually, if you aren’t busy right now, would you like to spend some time together?”
Gonta nods enthusiastically. “Of course! Gonta just finish up with snails, so he has time to hang out!”
They pass the time walking around campus and talking about this and that, occasionally stopping so Gonta can point out an insect to Shuichi. Shuichi politely listens and sometimes he asks questions or tells Gonta his own observations about the bugs, like that he didn’t know that ladybugs are actually a type of beetle. It’s nice; not many people are willing to humor Gonta when he talks so much about his interests. He may not be the smartest person ever, but he knows that not everyone is as gung-ho for bugs as he is. Shuichi himself had even been one to recoil in fear or disgust the first few times Gonta had shown him an insect.
But Shuichi had really made the effort to change his opinion since then, going so far as to help Gonta care for his bugs when he had the free time. It really warmed Gonta’s heart and motivated him to be a better gentleman. Shuichi was so kind!
“I’m sorry Gonta, I promised Kaede I’d listen to her play piano before dinner tonight, so I need to get going,” Shuichi says softly from where they’re resting under a tree in the courtyard.
“Oh, that’s okay! Gonta glad Shuichi spent time with him today. And thank you for the ladybug pin! Gonta wear it whenever he need to feel extra special!” he promises as he watches Shuichi rise up from the ground and dust himself off.
Shuichi chuckles lightly and smiles. “I’m really glad you like it. I’ll see you at dinner, alright?”
And with that, Shuichi is gone. Gonta hums happily to himself as he unpins the brooch from his lapel to thumb over the ladybug again. It really is so lifelike!
It occurs to Gonta that he has nothing else to do until dinner arrives. Perhaps he should go back to his lab and check on the bugs? But they’re probably fine. Then! Gonta realizes he can get a head start on his Gentleman Journal entry for the day.
Every night before bed, Gonta writes about his day and his strides in becoming a gentleman in his secret, self-proclaimed Gentleman Journal. Gonta likes to read over the previous entries to see how far he has come in his journey. When he’d first gotten to the school, the entries had stalled out, but since meeting all his new friends, and especially with Kaede and Shuichi’s help, Gonta feels like he’s made great progress in becoming the person he wants to be.
Once he’s reattached the pin to his lapel and dusted himself off, Gonta retreats back to the dorms to start his entry before dinner.
He starts by recounting how he’d helped the snails earlier, and that he hopes Gundam is pleased with how he’s cared for them thus far. Gundam is always so nice to him, telling him his control over the devious vermin that cover the Earth is beyond the power of a mere mortal. Gonta only really half-understands most of the things that Gundam says, but he thinks it’s a compliment, with the way that he smiles as he says it.
Then, Gonta writes about spending time with Shuichi. His face breaks into a grin involuntarily as he writes about Shuichi giving him the ladybug pin, and how he’d walked around campus talking about insects with Gonta. He finishes it up with the thought that perhaps he should get Shuichi a gift in return, and then, Gonta draws a big heart at the bottom of the page, because he’s happy, and he loves bugs and his friends and Shuichi and he thinks a gentleman should always be honest about his feelings.
Just as he’s finished the heart and is considering if he should color it in with a red pencil, his doorbell rings ten times in a row.
When he opens the door, Kokichi barrels past him and flops onto his bed. “Come in?” Gonta says as he turns around to look at Kokichi sprawled across his butterfly bedspread.
“Nishishi, you should be more careful, Gonta. I could have been a crazed murderer breaking in to kill you, you know?” Kokichi cackles. Gonta feels his heart seize at the thought, but he lets out a breath and shakes his head.
“Kokichi wouldn’t do that,” he says.
“Or would I?”
Gonta says nothing as he stands by his still opened door. After a moment, Kokichi rolls his eyes and rolls off the bed, jumping to his feet like a cat. “You’re boring. And after I came all this way to see you because I was already bored! Entertain me, Gonta!”
“Oh, okay!” Gonta agrees easily, happy to comply now that he knows what Kokichi wants. “Gonta was just finishing up Gentleman Journal entry-”
Kokichi whistles. “A journal, huh? Like where you keep your deep, dark secrets? I wanna read it!” His eyes scan the room until they lock on the journal laying open on Gonta’s desk. “Is this it?” he asks as he snatches it up.
Gonta feels conflicted. It’s his journal, which is private, but it’s also not like he has any reason to hide the contents of it. It’s just a history of his progress towards being a gentleman.
Kokichi seems to realize this as he thumbs through the first twenty or so pages. “Awe, lame. This is all just… boring.”
“Sorry,” Gonta apologizes with a frown as he reaches to take the journal from Kokichi. Kokichi twists out of reach and crosses the room to continue flipping through, eyes lighting up at a particular page.
“Ooooh, this sounds interesting!” Kokichi says, and then he reads out the entry from the journal. “Today Gonta go swimming with Shuichi and Kaede! They listen to me tell them about dragonflies living in water, and we played water polo. Shuichi look pretty with water on his lashes, but he get all red when Gonta tell him that. Gonta worry he make Shuichi uncomfortable, but Kaede say Shuichi just shy. Gonta should be more considerate of Shuichi’s shyness from now on! Are you kidding me?” Kokichi laughs.
Gonta furrows his brows. He’s not sure what Kokichi finds so funny about that entry. It had been a fun day! And Shuichi really had looked nice…
Kokichi flips through some more pages before just skipping to the last entry, and his eyebrows raise to nearly his hairline as he reads it over in his head. “You have a crush on Shuichi, don’t you?”
Gonta frowns. “No? Why would Gonta want to crush Shuichi? Shuichi is Gonta’s friend!”
Kokichi gives Gonta a bewildered look before he laughs again and drops the notebook to the ground. “Holy shit, you’re adorable. You don’t even see it, do you? Gonta, you literally drew a heart at the end of this one. You’re totally into Shuichi! Emos do it for you, huh?”
Emo? Into Shuichi? Gonta shakes his head. “Gonta… not understand. Gonta likes Shuichi, of course! He’s Gonta’s friend. He helps Gonta be a better gentleman. And he very smart! And pretty!”
“And you wanna kiss all over his dumb, stupid face, huh?”
Gonta stops. Does he? Gonta considers it for a moment. Does he want to kiss Shuichi? He’s never really thought about kissing anyone before, beyond a vague idea of one day getting married. But, as he thinks about it… he isn’t disappointed by the idea. He can imagine pressing his lips against Shuichi’s, and the thought makes his chest thump a little faster and his ears heat up.
“Gonta think… he maybe not mind kissing Shuichi.”
“Oh my God!” Kokichi laughs, his ‘Nishishi’ going on for a few seconds longer than Gonta is entirely comfortable with. Then, his face blanks, and he picks up the notebook and hands it back to Gonta. “You should totally tell him. It’ll be fun!”
Gonta blinks. “Really?”
Kokichi smiles and nods. “Yup! I’m an expert at knowing what things are fun, y’know? And I know without a doubt that you telling Shuichi that he’s pretty and you want to kiss him is definitely fun! I bet he turns as red as a tomato. Or a ladybug! Oooh! I bet he’ll cry!” Kokichi says, stars in his eyes.
Gonta balks. “Gonta no want Shuichi to cry!”
Kokichi waves him off. “Don’t worry, it’d be a good cry.”
“There’s good cry?” Gonta asks. Kokichi nods and skips out into the hallway.
“Yep! Well, I should let you plan out how you’re going to confess your undying love to Mister Detective. I’ll see you later, lovebug!” Kokichi calls as he heads down the stairs.
Quietly, Gonta shuts his dorm room door once again and walks over to his desk to set down his Gentleman Journal. Kokichi seemed to think it was a good idea to tell Shuichi about his feelings, and Gonta did think that being honest was the right thing to do. But, it couldn’t really be that easy. Gonta doesn’t even have a gift to give Shuichi in return for the nice ladybug pin. He thinks that maybe he should talk the situation over with Kaede after dinner, since she always seemed to know the right thing to do in a situation, and he couldn’t very well ask Shuichi for advice on a matter concerning him.
All throughout dinner, Gonta squirms in his seat across from Shuichi. He’d never even thought about kissing Shuichi before, but now it was all he could think about. And Kokichi kept shooting him mischievous grins and a thumbs-up that was almost comforting but just succeeded to make Gonta’s nerves twist with anxiety.
When dinner is over, Gonta approaches Kaede. “Oh, hey Gonta! What’s up?” She asks, smiling up at him.
“Gonta need to ask Kaede for advice!” he says, cutting straight to the point.
“Oh, okay! Follow me, we can talk in my research lab,” she says, motioning for Gonta to follow. He does, and before long they’ve arrived at the Ultimate Pianist’s Research Lab. Kaede bounces over to the piano’s seat and plops down, fingers tracing over the keys as she waits for Gonta to speak. “So, what’s up, Gonta?”
Gonta takes a breath to steady himself as Kaede rustles through her music sheets and begins playing a song Gonta vaguely recognizes. “Kokichi read Gonta’s Gentleman Journal,” he starts, and instantly, Kaede stops playing.
“He read your journal? God, I’m sorry Gonta. Kokichi can be a jerk sometimes,” she apologizes genuinely, eyebrows quirking into a concerned expression. Gonta shakes his head.
“No, no, it okay. Gonta didn’t try to stop him; Gonta’s journal not full of secrets! Gonta not think it really matter if someone read his journal. Maybe it even help them learn to be a gentleman, too!” he says, smiling as he considers the idea that he could help Kokichi to be a better person.
Kaede tilts her head in thought. “Oh, okay, I guess,” and then she resumes playing. “So why bring it up?”
“Well, Gonta write entry about today! Today, Gonta write about spending time with Shuichi,” he explains, and Kaede glances up from her playing to smile at him. “Kokichi say that Gonta has… ‘crush’ on Shuichi.”
“Awe,” Kaede says. “That’s cute. So do you?”
Gonta frowns. “Gonta not know. Gonta think about Shuichi, and Gonta thinks he’s really smart and kind and pretty! And… maybe, Gonta also think he’d like to kiss Shuichi.”
Kaede stops playing again to clap her hands together and shriek. “That’s so sweet, you do have a crush on Shuichi!” she cheers. “Are you going to tell him?” Then, she gasps. “You came to me to get advice on how to confess to him?”
“Yes! Gonta want to be honest about his feelings with Shuichi. But, Gonta does not know how to do that. When Gonta think about it, he get nervous,” Gonta admits, ducking his head.
Kaede stands up and walks over to Gonta, reaching up to wrap her arms around his shoulders the best that she can as she hugs him. “Don’t worry, it’ll go great, okay? Shuichi is a sweetheart, he won’t react badly or anything. So!” and she pulls away from the hug with a determined expression on her face. “Do you have a plan?”
Gonta pauses as he thinks about it. “Gonta want to give Shuichi a gift!”
Kaede nods. “That’s a good idea! He’s always giving everyone else presents all the time. I think he’ll be really happy to get something himself for once!”
Gonta agrees. “But Gonta not know what to get him!”
“Hmm…” Kaede hums in thought. “Well, what do you know about Shuichi? And the things he likes?”
Gonta considers it. “Well… Shuichi likes books! And tea. And bugs! He talks to Gonta about bugs a lot lately,” Gonta says, and Kaede smiles at that. “Kokichi call Shuichi ‘emo’. What that mean?”
Kaede snorts and stifles a laugh. “Kokichi was just teasing. But, that does give me an idea! You know those headphones they sell in the school store?” Gonta nods. “I saw Shuichi eyeing them the other day. Maybe you could get him those! He definitely already wants them, but he’s not really the type to spend so much money on himself like that, you know?”
Gonta thinks about it, and then he smiles widely. “Thank you, Kaede! Headphones are a great gift idea for Shuichi! Thank you for helping Gonta!”
Kaede flushes and waves it off. “Awe, don’t worry about it! I’m glad I could help. Let me know how it goes, okay?” she says, and then she returns to her seat at the piano. “I’m rooting for you two!”
Gonta thanks her once again and takes his leave, music filtering through the door just barely as he shuts it behind himself.
After buying the headphones, Gonta checks the time and finds it’s nearly nighttime already. If he doesn’t catch Shuichi before he goes to work out with Maki and Kaito, he’ll have to wait to confess tomorrow, and Gonta isn’t entirely sure he’ll be able to psyche himself back up to do this after a night’s rest.
Luckily, he spots Shuichi on his way out of the dorms, heading for the courtyard where Maki and Kaito surely await. He waves and slows down in his trek across campus when he spots Gonta, and Gonta waves back as he approaches him.
“Shuichi is going to train with Kaito and Maki?” Gonta asks, holding the headphones behind his back.
“Ah, yeah. What are you doing, Gonta? I thought you’d be in bed by now,” Shuichi says.
“Yes, Gonta was about to head back to dorms! But, Gonta need to talk to Shuichi first.”
Shuichi frowns minutely at that, but he nods. “Okay. What is it? Is something wrong?”
Gonta shakes his head. “No, no. Nothing wrong. It just… Gonta has a gift for you!” he blurts out, and then he thrusts the headphones at Shuichi quickly, before he has a second to rethink it. Shuichi blinks dumbly down at the headphones now in his grasp.
“Thank you,” he says softly, face coloring the shade of a Malaysian katydid. “You didn’t have to get me these, but thank you. I wish I had something to give you in return…” Shuichi trails off.
“Gonta got you these because you got him ladybug brooch!” he explains, and Shuichi nods.
“Right. Thank you, again, Gonta.”
And Shuichi starts to walk away, so Gonta calls out a quick, “Wait!” that has him turning around in confusion.
“Sorry?”
“It just that… Gonta have something else to say. Before Shuichi goes to train,” he begins, eyes darting away from Shuichi’s face.
“Yes?” Shuichi prompts, and well, this is it. Gonta takes one of Shuichi’s hands in his and focuses on his reddening face as he speaks.
“Gonta has been thinking, and Gonta thinks he has a ‘crush’ on Shuichi,” he says, and Shuichi gulps audibly. “When Gonta thinks about Shuichi, he feel all warm inside, and Gonta thinks Shuichi is really nice and smart and very pretty!”
At that, Shuichi makes an odd noise, pulling his hand quickly out of Gonta’s grasp and covering his mouth with it instead. He doesn’t stop Gonta from talking, or reject him, though. So Gonta goes on.
“A-and, Gonta think that maybe he might like to… kiss Shuichi? Only if Shuichi is okay with it of course!”
Shuichi is silent for a moment longer, but then, he nods once and leans up on his tiptoes to press a soft kiss to Gonta’s lips. When he’s flat on the ground again, he smiles shyly and looks away. “I like you, too, Gonta. A lot, actually. I was too afraid to tell you though…”
“Why would Shuichi be afraid?” Gonta has the gall to ask, but really he already knows. He was borderline terrified to confess his feelings to Shuichi, but it had all worked out.
Shuichi shrugs and laughs weakly. “I don’t know. I guess I was just worried you wouldn’t feel the same way.”
“But Gonta does!” That earns a lighter, happier laugh from Shuichi.
“Yeah, I know. Um,” Shuichi looks over his shoulder in the direction of Kaito and Maki, and then he turns back to Gonta with a crooked smile. “I have to go train now but… would you like to spend some time together tomorrow?”
“Yes, Gonta would like that!” he agrees, and then he kisses Shuichi again because it seems like the thing to do, and he really wants to. When he pulls away, Shuichi looks dumbstruck, smiling back at him.
“Okay. Goodnight, Gonta.”
“Goodnight, Shuichi!”
When Gonta gets back to his room, he updates his entry in his Gentleman Journal. He writes ‘Shuichi Saihara’ in pen right in the middle of the uncolored heart at the bottom of the journal entry. With a satisfied sigh, he closes the journal and gets ready for bed.