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“His name is Paul and I am in love with him.”
Maki and Shuichi blinked as a little box was shoved in front of their faces. The former didn’t budge in the slightest, much unlike the latter who nearly jumped out of his skin from the sudden motion.
In Kaito’s hands was a small box with a picture of a houseplant in a white pot shaped like a polar bear.
After Shuichi recovered from his momentary startle, he smiled slightly. “Paul looks cute.” He commented, observing the little box. “Are you gonna take him out?”
“Heck yeah I am!” Kaito exclaimed with his usual amount of force. He gingerly opened the box, taking out the little empty polar bear pot. “Welcome to the world, little guy!”
“Where’d you get him from?” Maki questioned. Although she kept her expression neutral, Shuichi and Kaito could tell that she seemed to like Kaito’s new potted plant.
“Daiso!” Kaito chirped, taking out the little seed packet that came with it.
“Daiso?” Shuichi mimicked. “Are you sure a plant from there can be good?”
“Of course, Shuichi!” Kaito opened the seed packet, the smile on his face standing strong as he poured the dirt and seeds into the pot. “Any plant from anywhere can grow with the right amount of care and the right amount of love!”
Maki rolled her eyes. “That sounds like it came straight out of a television program,” She commented, internally cringing.
“It’s true, though, isn’t it?!” Kaito swiftly avoided Maki’s question by gesturing to his (as he liked to call it) Great Wall of Plants.
On the wall perpendicular to the window were a few shelves, each filled with plants in an orderly fashion. Kaito had built the shelves mostly by himself- but with the help of a classmate of his who was more hands-on than him, he was able to turn the shelves ninety degrees so they could face the window to get their required sunlight. Right now, the shelves were on their normal position against the wall, as it was late at night and the sun was nowhere to be found.
Kaito admired his plants for a few seconds before turning to Shuichi and Maki. “The impossible is possible!” Kaito grinned. “All you gotta do…”
“...Is make it so.” The other two finished, although Maki had finished it with less umph than Kaito would’ve hoped for.
He was about to call her out on it, when a shrill beeping sound filled the apartment. “Ooh! Cookies!” Luckily enough for Maki, Kaito had the attention span of a fly. “I’ll be back in a second, guys!”
As soon as Kaito rounded the corner to the kitchen, Maki’s gaze turned to Shuichi. “What’s up?”
“H-Huh?” Shuichi looked at Maki, a look of confusion on his face. “What do you mean?”
“You’re thinking about something.” Maki crossed her arms, leaning back slightly. “What is it?”
“Ah,” Shuichi’s gaze flickered to Kaito’s Great Wall of Plants. “I was thinking, what if Kaito sees people similar to plants, and that’s why he likes us so much?”
Maki turned her red eyes to the Great Wall of Plants. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
Shuichi nodded. “Yeah.” He admitted. “But I can show you what I mean. Kaito had you raise a plant, right?” He asked.
“The singular rose on the top right.”
“That’s one of my favorites,” Shuichi commented, a slight smile on his face. “He helped me grow the violets on the top left. But, as I was saying, When we compare ourselves to the plants we helped cultivate, it makes a bit of sense.” When he was greeted by silence, Shuichi took it as a sign to continue. “Roses symbolize love, and look so pretty when they open up, but they also have thorns on the side which makes them difficult to approach. Thanks to Kaito’s help, you were able to prune the thorns off and make the plant more open to hold, similar to how Kaito helped you open up.”
Maki closed her eyes. “So that’s what you think, huh?”
Shuichi nodded. “Yeah! Although, it may sound a bit cliche, Kaito’s all about cliches, right?”
“Well what about you?” Maki questioned.
“As for me… I’m not quite sure what violets mean, but I think they mean modesty and humility. Kaito helped me grow the violets, similar to how he helped me change my self-deprecation into modesty.”
A long minute of silence passed between the two, before Maki let out a sigh. “You sure love to over-complicate things, don’t you?” She asked, pinching the bridge of her nose. “No wonder you’re always so on edge.”
Shuichi was taken aback slightly. “Wh-what? Did I mess up somewhere? I thought my theory was good.”
“It was good,” Maki assured him. “But this is Kaito we’re talking about. There’s a chance there might not even be a mystery behind this at all, and that it was just coincidence. But on the off chance there is, it’s probably a lot simpler than you think.”
Maki normally agreed with whatever theories he came up with- he wasn’t a detective for nothing. Though this time, she was right. He did have a tendency to over-complicate things, and perhaps that’s what he was doing right now. But what could Kaito have possibly hoped to accomplish with violets and roses?
Violets and roses…
…
Roses and violets…
…
Shuichi was half tempted to ask Maki to slap him for being so smart yet so dumb at the same time. He groaned, slapping his hand to his forehead in his variant of a facepalm. “Roses are red…”
“Violets are blue...” Maki nodded her head, continuing Shuichi’s train of thought.
“Sugar is sweet…” Maki and Shuichi turned their heads to the third voice joining them in, watching as he set a tray of heart-shaped cookies on the table in front of them. “And so are you!” Kaito finished, a huge grin on his face that captured the hearts of both their friends. “And so are these cookies, too,” He added, taking a cookie from the plate and eating it as he plopped down in the middle of both of them on the large sofa. “Seriously! I did amazing! You should try ‘em!”
“Chew first,” Maki brought her hand to his chin, forcing his mouth shut in a swift motion. “Talk later.” She grabbed a cookie with her other hand, taking a bite.
“Wait, did you hear our conversation?” Shuichi asked, taking a cookie and eating it.
Kaito nodded his head. “Of course I did!” He exclaimed. “My walls are paper thin, I’ve heard a lot of your conversations!”
Shuichi and Maki both choked slightly on the bits of cookie in their mouths, not so discreetly bringing their hand to their mouths and letting out a few coughs. Kaito laughed at this. “I will say, though, both of you are right! I picked roses and violets because I thought it’d be neat to do something like Maki’s theory, but the more I thought about it the more it became like Shuichi’s theory! Well done!” He slapped both of them on the back, stretching his arms even further and wrapping them around their necks, pulling them both in for a hug. “I’d expect nothing less from my sidekicks!”
Maki and Shuichi shared a glance with one another, a slight, knowing smile on both of their faces. Shuichi chuckled lightly as Maki rolled her eyes. Together, the three of them spent the rest of their night eating cookies and watching cheesy movies.