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Arakita absolutely loathed Valentine's Day.
It meant that about two weeks before, girls started whispering in the corridors, stealing glances at their dream guys, sharing recipes for homemade chocolates and what kind of sexy underwear they were going to wear on their date. The amount of girls hanging out near their club room also increased. Toudou's fanclub was there, as usual, but even Manami and Izumida seemed to become momentarily more popular when the dreadful day approached.
Arakita didn't expect it to mean that girls would be running after Shinkai all day, too.He had barely even seen his friend today! When they had finally had a chance to talk after history class, some girl had followed them, asking if she could "speak with Hayato-kun in private”.
"What's wrong, Arakita? You seem even more ill-tempered than usual today," Toudou asked while they were on their lunch break in the cafeteria. Toudou had somehow managed to deal with most of his fangirls all at once before their morning classes, making quite a show, and was now enjoying some peace and quiet. He figured no girl would be forward enough to talk to him while he was sitting with Arakita. Arakita didn't even know why he'd let him sit with him - Toudou's company made him only feel even more miserable, if possible.
"Shut up! It's none of your fucking business!" Arakita grumbled, stuffing his face with fried rice.
"You're not the type to get pissed off because you're not getting any chocolates… Maybe it's something else," Toudou pointed out, smirking. “I’m right, aren’t I?”
"Hmmh," Arakita wasn't listening. He ignored Toudou in favour of watching another small group of girls approaching Shinkai in front of the cafeteria doors. The bravest one of them was pushed forward to act as their spokesperson, it seemed. Arakita frowned when he saw Shinkai accepting three gift boxes and a letter. Shinkai winked at the girls and did his signature gun-pose, making them blush and giggle.
Eventually Toudou realized that Arakita wasn’t paying attention to him and he quickly noticed where Arakita’s focus lay. "I knew it, it's about him! You should just confess! It's about time, already."
For once, Arakita didn't deny it. Of course Toudou knew, he might be an idiot but Arakita had to agree he was perceptive when the subject was other people's business.
"And why would I ever embarrass myself doing something like that?!" Arakita huffed.
"To finally add some romance to your high school life!" Toudou gushed. "Are you seriously just gonna sit and watch girls swooning over him all day? I'm just offering to help you!"
"I'd rather eat my fucking jersey than take an advice from you!" Arakita spat. He didn't need Toudou to meddle with his personal life."What about your precious Makishima? Doesn't he get angry at you for humoring your fanclub, or whatever?" Arakita asked. "Cheating on him behind his back, huh?"
"No, it's nothing like that, we aren't even... together, not yet," Toudou's smile faltered a little.
"Tch, I was kidding. Everyone knows you two aren’t together. If you were, you would have announced it to everybody and floated in the clouds for a month! You should just go pick up one of the chicks and get laid, then you wouldn't be so interested in sticking your nose into other people's business.”
"You don't get it, I have to maintain my pure image! There would be a fight if I went out with any of them! I haven't even accepted their letters because... Well..." Toudou trailed off, blushing. "And chocolate has far too many calories!"
Arakita rolled his eyes. "I don't get how he even tolerates you… Well, have you tried confessing to him yet, loverboy?" he asked.
"I haven't, the moment is never right... Besides, I want to be sure I won't ruin our friendship so I was kind of hoping for him to say it first..." Toudou sighed.
"See, that's the exact reason I won't be making any moves on Shinkai!"
Toudou's phone vibrated in his pocket. He flipped it open and immediately jumped up. "I got a text from Maki-chan!! I gotta go, I'll see you at practice, Arakita!" he exclaimed, packing up his things quickly and running off.
Arakita groaned. Maybe he should also text Shinkai and tell him to fuck off for ignoring him, or call Fukutomi and ask him what classes he had in the afternoon. After digging through his bag he found his phone on the bottom, only to notice it was out of battery. He cursed and stormed out of the cafeteria, kicking a chair and scaring a pair of first year students as he left.
Toudou had a plan. It suddenly occurred to him in the middle of the math class, while he was spacing out and daydreaming about his upcoming date with Maki-chan. (Maki-chan had asked him out!)
He knew that Shinkai and Arakita liked each other, he wasn't blind. Arakita had even admitted it today! Their earlier conversation about confessions made him come up with an idea.
He probably wouldn't be able to convince Shinkai, but Arakita didn't need to know that. They just needed a little push into the right direction... He started furiously scribbling into his notebook, coming up with possible scenarios. He only had about an hour left until the practice.
After school, Toudou peeked cautiously into the locker room. No one was there yet, perfect. Quickly he slipped two pieces of paper into their lockers; one for Arakita and another for Shinkai. Now the only thing he needed to do was wait.
"I'm a genius!" he praised himself and hid the evidence in his own locker.
Arakita was still pissed off. After lunch, he had gone looking for Shinkai one more time. He had caught a glimpse of him, going into the rooftop with a cute second year girl from volleyball club. She was clinging into Shinkai's arm, excitedly explaining the contents of her homemade bento she had brought for him. Sneaking her way into Shinkai's heart with food, huh? This girl was a smart one.
Well, since apparently he wouldn't be seeing Shinkai until their practice after school, Arakita decided he might as well work on his biology essay on his free period. He went to retrieve some of the books he had borrowed from the library yesterday from his locker. To his surprise, he found a folded piece of lavender colored paper sitting innocently on top of his stuff. Curiously, he opened it and nearly choked on his Bepsi.
Meet me in the club room after practice. -Shinkai
This... It couldn't be, right? Was this why Shinkai had been ignoring him all day? Arakita wasn't into romantic shit or anything, but this was definitely something new... Still, it was annoying as fuck. Why hadn't Shinkai texted to him if he had something to talk about?! Oh right, his phone was dead… But what if it was some kind of a joke?
Arakita was lost in his thoughts throughout the whole practice, the images of pink love letters and chocolates fueling his rage. At least he had managed to improve his time a little bit with his unusually aggressive riding, gaining a nod of acknowledgement from Fukutomi.
Shinkai was acting like everything was normal but Arakita had caught him fiddling with something in his pocket, sending questioning looks at him. After practice, Arakita had huffed and walked out of the locker room as soon as possible, without saying a word.
Twenty minutes later he found himself back at the club room door, for god knows what reason, half-expecting Shinkai to not being there. It was a prank, right?
"Uh..." Arakita mumbled, his anger suddenly dissipating as he saw the redhead sitting on an armchair, nibbling a power bar, as if he'd been waiting for some time for Arakita to come.
"Hey, Yasutomo, I got your letter."Shinkai stood up, putting his snack back into the wrapper and into his pocket.
"Hah?"
Before he could say anything else, Shinkai slammed him against the door and kissed him.
Arakita was frozen for a second, but he quickly regained his senses to respond to Shinkai's kiss. He pulled Shinkai closer, deepening the kiss, opening his mouth, letting their tongues tangle passionately. He felt Shinkai's arms encircle his body, holding him tightly as he let his hands travel to Shinkai’s back, pulling him closer still.When they finally broke apart, Arakita's heart was beating wildly.
"What the fuck..." he blinked, absolutely stunned by the sudden makeout session.
“I’ve actually been wanting to do that for a while,” Shinkai chuckled, almost sheepishly. “I didn't know I had a secret admirer.” He pushed a piece of paper in Arakita's hand. "I'll come and pick you up for dinner later. See you then, Yasutomo.” He gave him a wink before walking out of the clubroom.
Still dazed, Arakita opened up the note, smoothing a few creases on it before his brain could decipher the words.
"Shinkai, I like the way how you ride your bike,
Would you like to ride me too?"
Arakita was furious, he knew the culprit who was behind of this. He yanked Toudou's locker open. To his luck, the Sleeping Beauty had forgotten to lock it while being too much in a hurry for his date.
His eyes immediately spotted a notebook and a few similar lavender colored pieces of paper. He flipped the notebook open and saw various drafts for a note he definitely didn't write, attempting to imitate his messy handwriting and Shinkai's neat, more narrow one, each one of the notes being more embarrassing than the other.
"Shinkai, I like you a lot."
"Happy Valentine's day. Let me take you out on a date!"
"I've been watching you talking with girls all day and i'm getting jealous"
"Shinkai, just kiss me already because this is ridiculous"
He was going to kill Toudou.