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Hidari Shoutarou honestly had no idea why in the world Terui Ryuu was coming after him after Akiko had turned down his kiss. Akiko clearly liked him, why had she turned down his kiss?? And why him?! Because he was next to Akiko? That was terrible logic! Shoutarou tried to back up, but it was too late, Terui’s lips were on his, chaste but forceful. Shoutarou could hear Philip laughing, that bastard, and then felt Akiko hitting him with her faithful green slipper.
“OI!” Shoutarou yelled, pushing Terui off of him. “Why are you hitting ME, he’s the one who kissed me!”
“I DIDN’T HEAR ANYTHING ABOUT THIS!” Akiko shrieked, hitting the both of them with the slipper, which simply read “what?!”
“And you think I did??” Shoutarou sputtered. “I’m the one who got kissed here! Maybe be more sympathetic to me??”
Akiko’s answer to that was to hit him on the head again.
Philip watched as the commotion continued. Terui had somehow escaped with only one hit of Akiko’s slipper, which had certainly broken up the kiss, while Shoutarou was currently yelling at Akiko and Turei as Akiko slapped the slipper in her hand. Philip couldn’t help but laugh at Shoutarou’s expression, full of indignation and face bright red, although if it was from yelling or embarrassment or something else, Philip couldn’t tell. He wasn’t worried about Shoutarou liking Terui, considering that Philip had done a look-up on feelings soon after he had observed Shoutarou blushing after calling him his only partner. He knew what he felt for Shoutarou and (considering all the information available in the Gaia Library) was 97.23% sure Shoutarou felt the same way. (The 2.77% was accounting for the fact that Shoutarou did seem at least physically attracted to various women that came into the office, although fleetingly).
“TERUI GET BACK HERE AND EXPLAIN YOURSELF!” Shoutarou shrieked as Terui made a run for it, dodging Akiko’s thrown slipper and escaping out the front door. From what Philip could see, Terui was bright red and frowning.
Now that Terui had left, the office was left in a silence that Philip would call “deafening” if he was taken to using oxymorons. Akiko stood in the middle of the office, her hand raised in a fist. Shoutarou was leaning against the table, hand over his face in a familiar position.
“...why me…” Shoutarou mumbled, knocking over some of the DVDs that Terui had brought.
Akiko went over to retrieve the DVDs, her face brightening as she looked them over closely. “Ooh, I haven’t seen these yet! Shoutarou-kun, lend me your player.”
“No.”
“I’m your chief, lend me your player!” Akiko said, raising her slipper threateningly.
“.....fine.” Shoutarou grumpily got it out from under the bed and gave it to her. “Now leave, you middle-schooler!”
Akiko accepted the DVD player and left, leaving Philip and Shoutarou alone. Philip watched as Shoutarou tried to speak before throwing his hands up and going into the garage, slamming the door as he went in.
Shoutarou couldn’t calm down. It wasn’t like Terui’s kiss had been his first one (Queen and Elizabeth still wouldn’t tell him who it had been in the blindfolded King’s game where he had lost his first kiss), or even his first one with another man (that King’s game had been quite wild). But it was the first kiss he’d had since Philip came into his life. He sighed, wondering what his life had come to. To be kissed by Turei, who Akiko clearly had a crush on, and not by…
He sighed again. He looked over the whiteboards, which seemed to be about….peanut butter? That was about the only word he recognized before it went off to what looked like Thai and then maybe Hebrew, if Shoutarou had to guess. Considering it only took about half a whiteboard, Shoutarou figured they had interrupted him before he could get too far into it. Which, as far as he was concerned, was a good thing. He wasn’t even sure he could get peanut butter for Philip if he asked for it.
“Ah, mou !” he muttered, walking to the edge of the walkway and laying down, letting his legs dangle, and bringing his left hand to his lips. Of all the things to happen, honestly. He would rather deal with five Dopant attacks than Terui’s kiss.
“Are you done acting like a child?” Philip asked, having appeared out of nowhere and crouching down to be in Shoutarou’s line of vision.
Shoutarou did the extremely hard-boiled thing of “getting up and knocking the other person down by accident”, causing him to feel even more flustered, especially as Philip looked up at him so...calmly.
“I would take that as a no,” Philip stated, getting up and holding his hand out for Shoutarou to take.
Shoutarou looked at Philip’s hand. He had taken it so many times without thought, or extended his to Philip, why was he thinking so much about it now?
“Shoutarou?” Philip asked. Crap, he had apparently taken too much time and was now looking like a bigger idiot (well, actually, everyone looked like an idiot compared to Philip , with all the Earth’s knowledge in his head or whatever). He sighed and took the offered hand, pursing his lips and looking away, letting go quicker than he usually did.
“Do you not feel well, Shoutarou?” Philip asked. “Your face is red.”
Shoutarou glared at him, unsure of how to put his feelings into words.
Philip of course knew why Shoutarou’s face was red, but was curious to see if he would admit it.
“Did you know that facial veins respond to an active myogenic contraction and passively stretch, and therefore are able to develop an intrinsic basal tone?” Philip asked.
Shoutarou looked bewildered, and shook his head, putting his fingers through his hair. “If you use words like that, I will have no idea what you’re talking about, Philip.”
Philip smiled. “Well, despite being similar, flushing and blushing--”
“Who’s blushing?!” Shoutarou said hotly, his cheeks getting redder as he said it.
Shoutarou wished he had his hat, so that he could hide his face with it. As it was, he was forced to listen to Philip talk about blushing and Charles Darwin (wasn’t he the evolution scientist? What did this have to do with blushing??) and have his feelings grow more and more muddled.
“Agh, I can’t take it anymore!” Shoutarou said after Philip made his fifth turn around from where he had been walking on the metal grate.
“Can’t take what?” Philip asked curiously.
Shoutarou looked up to the ceiling, wondering if he could do it. If Terui could, he could too...right?
He grabbed Philip’s wrist, bringing him to himself. Philip looked startled for a moment, then grinned, his hand reaching out and brushing some of Shoutarou’s hair out of his face.
“Are you done being half-boiled, Shoutarou?” Philip asked in a whisper.
Shoutarou groaned and drew Philip closer, tilting his head down and putting his lips on Philip’s. And, oh , this was so much better than Turei’s dumb kiss, because Philip was responding , and it was Philip , and they were partners , and...Shoutarou stopped thinking and just enjoyed the kiss.
When they broke apart, Philip rested his forehead against his, looking up at Shoutarou with such a fond expression that Shoutarou nearly felt like crying, which wasn’t very hard-boiled.
“I was wondering when you’d get the picture,” Philip said simply, looking content to stay where he was.
“Shut up…” Shoutarou mumbled.
“Interesting that Terui kissing you made you act…” Philip said thoughtfully.
Shoutarou shut him up with another kiss.