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Shuichi takes out the key to his dorm room, and misses the keyhole about twice when he attempts to rush the process of unlocking his door. Normally he isn’t this jittery, but thanks to being paired with Angie for class clean-up duty, he stayed on campus much longer than he normally would have liked. And being the nice guy that he is, Shuichi couldn’t find it in him to scold Angie too harshly whenever she would goof off.
Why did he have to get stuck with cleaning duty on Valentine’s Day of all dates?
Granted, he and Kokichi were still able to exchange chocolates with each other during homeroom at the very least. But this was going to be their first Valentine’s day as an actual couple since they got together close to the end of their first year at Hope’s Peak Academy. He wasn’t about to miss their date for something dumb like cleaning duty; what does it matter if now he has to rush to get ready so he isn’t late for their gift exchange?
The door finally unlocks, thank goodness. Their dinner reservation isn’t for another hour and a half, but maybe if he doesn’t take his time in the shower he’ll have time to--
“SURPRISE!!” a voice shouts, and the next thing Shuichi knows he’s being tackled onto his bed. He doesn’t even have to venture a guess as to who the “intruder” could be.
Shuichi turns his body to come face-to-face with the Ultimate Supreme Leader, Kokichi Ouma, himself. The little trickster bares a playful smile as he straddles the detective, and leans down to give Shuichi a soft kiss. “Well well, it’s about time you showed up my beloved Detective!” false tears start to pool around his tear ducts, “I...w-was starting to think you stood me up for our date Shuichi! WAA--”
“So I take it you lock picked my door to get in then?” Shuichi chuckles, interrupting the crocodile tears from being shed.
Like flipping a switch, Kokichi’s frown is replaced with his typical mischievous grin. “Nishishi, oh you know me so well my beloved! I figured I’d grace you with my presence after you got stuck with our residential cult leader for cleaning duty, and what better way than to nearly give you a heart attack!” he finishes with that glimmer in his violet eyes that always makes Shuichi smile.
He leans up to give his boyfriend a well-deserved kiss on the cheek, “Thank you, Kokichi. Angie was kind of a handful, so this was honestly a welcoming surprise.” Shuichi notices that the other boy was already dressed for their date. The Supreme Leader was dressed in a purple short-sleeved button up, black skinny jeans, with a black and grey checkered vest and a white bowtie to complete his ensemble. Instead of his hair being freely curled, Kokichi decided to style his hair into a small ponytail. “You know, you didn’t have get ready extra early for me Kokichi.”
Kokichi slides off the Detective’s lap, nonchalantly tossing his arms behind his head. “Weeell, I just figured if I showed up unannounced you’d be less likely to die from the stress of rushing to get ready! Can’t have my favorite minion dead before I have him spoil me on the second best day of the year after all!” the shorter boy reaches under the detective’s bed producing a peach colored box with a bright red ribbon, “Speaking of spoiling, what say we exchange presents already my beloved? I’d like to keep your priceless face to myself rather than share it with some total randos at the restaurant!”
“Oh, uh sure thing Kokichi! Just give me a second to get it.” Shuichi walks over to his school bag, taking out a small key for one of the hidden compartments in his bag. He notices Kokichi tilting his head to the side and chuckles lightly, “A safety measure in case you tried to sneak into my room to peek at your present early while I wasn’t here. When you’re dating a professional thief you have to anticipate what they might do next.” Shuichi pulls out a gift from his bag that looks to be shaped like a book, its white wrapping paper tied neatly with a blue ribbon. He leans over to kiss Kokichi’s forehead as he lays the gift in the leader’s hands. “And you definitely do a great job of keeping me on my toes, there is never a dull moment with you in my life.”
The small leader flushes at the sentimental words from his boyfriend. His fingers clasp the gift in his hands ever so tightly as he grins mischievously at the detective. “Well well well, look who’s learning to keep his guard up! Hope I’m not becoming predictable now Mr. Detetive, last thing I’d want is to become another Average Joe to you!”
“Kokichi Ouma an Average Joe? Like that could ever happen!” He chuckles.
Kokichi starts to unwrap the present, pulling apart the wrapping paper he finds a notebook with a checkered-motif. On the cover of the notebook is a title that reads The Many Hijinks of Kokichi Ouma (and those planned by Shuichi Saihara). Flipping through a few of the pages he finds titles named after the pranks he’s pulled on several of his classmates, it included descriptions written by Shuichi himself as well as how the detective had felt about the prank itself. There were even attempts at doodles of Kokichi performing each prank on the unfortunate victim.
After the pages describing Kokichi’s pranks, the next few were actually prank ideas that Shuichi had come up with. Shuichi even included some schedules for Kokichi’s favorites to prank (mostly Kaito, Miu, Nagito, Hiyoko, and Tenko) so it’d make planning much easier on the supreme leader. “Oh my, who knew that the Boy Detective actually had a mischievous side! I’m glad to see that having the Ultimate Supreme Leader’s positive influence in your life has awakened your true calling Shumai!”
“I, uh, don’t think that’s quite accurate.” Shuichi chuckles awkwardly.
Kokichi hands Shuichi the gift he prepared for him, the smile on the leader’s face being one of his more sincere ones. “Oh just open your gift already Prank Master!”
The detective starts to pull at the neatly wrapped gift until the peach wrapping paper is all neatly laid on his bed and his present is out in the open.
It looked like it was a photo album or scrapbook. On the front of the album was a trimmed photo of a surprise selfie Kokichi had taken of the two. Shuichi smiles when he recalls how dated the photo is - just from seeing himself wearing his hat was enough for Shuichi to pinpoint that it was taken way before they had gotten together. The startled look on his face was priceless, but Kokichi’s smile was absolutely precious.
Circling the photo were stick-on foam letters that spelled out “Our Memories”, with the letters in an alternating pattern of black and white.
Kokichi gives Shuichi a warm smile, and continues to glance down at the album as if he was saying “Well open it up you big dingus!”
Flipping through each page results in the reminiscing about a different memory of their time together.
One photo shows the two of them dancing together at a formal dance the academy held around Fall. Shuichi remembers Kokichi sneaking off to spike Hiyoko’s cup of punch with hot sauce after the dancer was being extra cruel with Mikan that night. He can’t help but laugh when he recalls Kokichi doing his best to be a good dance partner, and apologizing under his breath whenever he’d step on the detective’s foot.
Another photo has them standing with Chiaki and Kaede around some Halloween decorations, the four of them dressed in costume for the occasion. Shuichi dressing as a harlequin and Kokichi dressing in old-school detective attire instead of the reverse definitely turned some heads, but that was Kokichi’s intention with their costumes from the beginning.
Shuichi continues skimming the album, finding photos from moments like Christmas, birthday parties, class field trips, different date outings, birthday parties, etc.
The final photo was from what was clearly New Years - Shuichi had managed to snap a photo of the two them kissing right as they rung in the new year together.
After this photo the rest of the pages are blank. One would assume Kokichi had merely ran out of photos to use for the album, but Shuichi knew better than that. He understood the message Kokichi was trying to get across with his present.
And hearing the supreme leader confirm his thought only made him happier.
“It may look blank now Shuichi, but these pages are just reserved for the many, many more memories that are to come for the two of us! I stole your heart like you stole mine - so you better believe that this album is gonna be a testament to that!”
The detective leans forward to bring the smaller boy in for a warmer kiss, a means of thanking him for the sentimental gift.
This really was a great start to their first Valentine’s Day as couple, and Shuichi can’t wait to add the photos from their day to the album chronicling their journey.