Chapter Text
Shuichi stands at his desk, puzzling over the items on it. A glance around the room shows that none of his classmates are paying him any attention except Kaede, who is staring at him with a raised eyebrow to which he gives a confused shrug.
He certainly doesn't know how a cup of coffee and a single flower got on his desk, and he supposes that she doesn't either, so it's probably not just a gift from his best friend. And he can't quite see Kaito or Maki giving him a flower, even if they might buy him coffee now and then. And even then, they certainly wouldn't have doodled a heart next to a little flower on the lid.
He cautiously takes a sip of said coffee, pleasantly surprised to find that it's exactly how he likes it-- black with a pump of caramel-- before setting down again and turning to the flower. He's pretty sure that it's a purple rose, and he picks it up, giving it a sniff.
It smells like a rose.
Obviously.
He sighs and rubs at his temples, already anticipating a headache, before he places the rose down and takes another sip of the coffee.
It's some damn good coffee.
He decides to go talk to Kaede about it; there's still a good twenty minutes before class starts so it shouldn't be a problem.
Normally he only gets to class around five minutes early, but he couldn't fall asleep the prior night and figured that he may as well head to class. The lack of sleep makes the coffee especially welcome, and he continues to sip at it as he walks across the room to his best friend.
She grins up at him slyly, and when he reaches her desk she says, “Good morning, especially for you it seems.”
Shuichi sighs and looks at her pleadingly, making her laugh.
“Sorry Shuichi, but I have no idea who your secret admirer is.”
“Secret admirer?” Shuichi feels his face heat up a bit, and Kaede giggles a bit more.
“Well, if someone left a rose and my favorite beverage on my desk that's what I'd assume. Oh, and the coffee does have a heart on it too.”
Shuichi feels his face heat up even more as she explains the obvious.
“I didn't even think of that, honestly,” he mumbles, slightly ashamed.
He's supposed to be a detective, goddamnit.
Kaede pats him on the shoulder sympathetically, and he gives her a small but grateful smile.
“So, do you have any idea who it is?”
Shuichi takes another sip of coffee before responding, “Well, I was thinking that they would most likely be someone who was already here when I got here, but if they didn't want to be caught it would make more sense for them to have gotten here before anyone else and leave after putting the coffee and rose on my desk. So it could have been anyone.”
“Well, think on it, I'm sure that you'll figure it out!” Kaede exclaims, and Shuichi smiles back with a nod.
They finish their conversation, and Shuichi decides to ask around, just in case someone did see whoever put the items on his desk.
Of course, it can't be that simple, because no one that's already in the classroom knows anything.
He's about to head back to his desk and wait for class to start, when he quite literally bumps into someone, just barely managing to not spill his coffee over both of them.
Not just someone, Kokichi.
“Ah, I’m sorry Kokichi, I didn't see you.”
He expects Kokichi to throw a dramatic tantrum, but when he looks down to see Kokichi staring at the rose and coffee clutched in Shuichi’s grip, he feels himself freeze in place.
All of the sudden, he really doesn't want Kokichi to know about the situation.
For multiple reasons, really. For one, Kokichi is bound to tease him endlessly for it, and while that doesn't necessarily bother Shuichi, he'd rather avoid it if at all possible. And, of course, there's the fact that he's not sure what he wants Kokichi’s response to him having a secret admirer to be.
On one hand, he never wants Kokichi to be upset. Not only is it a miserable experience for everyone involved, but he also just doesn't want him to be unhappy because he cares about him.
On the other, more selfish hand, he can't help but hope that Kokichi will get at least a little jealous. That would hint at him returning Shuichi’s feelings, and...
Of course, there's nothing he can do about it now .
Kokichi gasps dramatically and grabs the coffee from Shuichi's hand.
“Wow! Does my Shumai have a” pause for dramatic effect, “ secret admirer!?”
Shuichi feels his face turn bright red, and if he wasn't holding the rose he probably would have covered his face with his hands.
“P-please don't make a big deal out of this, Kokichi.” he pleads, all the while knowing that it'll accomplish nothing.
“So! Do you know who it is?” Kokichis eyes glint sharply for a second, but his expression returns to its normal excitement so Shuichi assumes he just imagined it.
“N-no, I don't have any idea who it is.”
“Whaaaaaat? That's soooo boring! Aren't you supposed to be, like, the Ultimate Detective? I would think that you figured it out immediately through the power of deduction or whatever!” Kokichi pouts.
“Well I'm sorry to disillusion you, but I'm not quite that good. Do you have any idea who it is?” Shuichi smiles lightly.
“Well, it's obvious that it's Maki-roll of course!”
“ What?”
“But that's a lie!” Kokichi’s entire demeanor changes, as he pretends to check his nail polish for chips and his expression falls flat. “I don't really care who it is.”
Shuichi frowns lightly; he's pretty sure that's a lie, but he decides not to pursue it.
“Sure. Well, whoever it is, they chose the right day to give me coffee. I didn't get any sleep last night.” He walks around to Kokichi and sits down at his desk before turning back to Kokichi, who bounces over to sit on the edge of said desk.
“Yeah I know, dummy. I mean, you answered me when I texted you at four in the morning so I figured you weren't going to get any sleep.” Kokichi rolls his eyes. Then he straightens up suddenly, as if he just remembered something, and leans a bit forward, towards Shuichi.
“Oh! Did you remember to study for the test we have today?”
Shuichi freezes in horror, and only relaxes when he hears Kokichi’s giggle and ‘But that's a lie!’. He exhales loudly and goes to take another sip of coffee only to realize that he already finished it.
“Aw, Shumai, it's okay.” Kokichi pats him on the head. “You can get another coffee at lunch!”
Shuichi can feel something warm in his chest at the casual reassurance, and he finds himself smiling again.
Shuichi and Kokichi continue to talk until the teacher walks into the room, at which point Kokichi scampers off to his seat behind Iruma, and Shuichi shakes his head fondly, trying to ignore the faint disappointment he feels rise in his chest.
“Whoa bro, really?” Kaito looks at Shuichi wide-eyed from the other side of the table, and Shuichi nods.
“Yeah really, look.” Shuichi carefully places the purple rose on the table, and Kaito’s eyes light up.
“Hell yeah! I'd expect nothing less from my favorite sidekick!” Kaito pumps his fist in the air, and Maki frowns.
“And you have no idea who it is?”
Shuichi shakes his head in confirmation, sipping at the canned coffee he got from a vending machine.
Not as good as the one from this morning, but it's doing its job and he feels much more awake.
“I'm sure my sidekick will figure it out, he's the Ultimate Detective after all!”
Shuichi smiles lightly at the encouragement and goes back to eating his lunch.
The topic of conversation slowly shifts away from Shuichi’s secret admirer as lunch goes on, and Shuichi happily lets it happen. He's already thought about the event enough for today.
The next day, when Shuichi shows up at school, he's not sure what he expects to find. But when he walks up to his desk to find yet another flower and coffee, he can't help the smile that rises to his face.
This time the flower’s a lilac -Shuichi recognizes the smell- and the coffee has a little hat drawn next to the heart.
It tastes amazing, yet again.
“Wow, my beloved sure looks happy this morning!”
Shuichi startles at the sudden noise and almost spills his coffee, just like the prior day.
“It seems like you're almost determined to make me spill my drinks all over myself.” Shuichi smiles wryly at Kokichi.
“Maybe I just want to see you take off your shirt!” Kokichi winks at him, and Shuichi feels his mouth go dry for a moment before he manages to let out a shaky laugh.
Kokichi is going to be the death of him.
“Aaaaanyways, you should show up earlier more often. The only person here to annoy was gross Miu, and she sucks, especially compared to my Shumai.”
Shuichi chuckles and promises to try to get to class sooner the next day. Not long after Kokichi wanders off to annoy Kiibo.
Shuichi assumes that whoever his secret admirer is plans to make this a daily thing, and Shuichi has to admit he's enjoying walking into class to find a coffee and a flower every morning.
On Wednesday it was a purple hydrangea, and the coffee had a dice drawn next to the heart. On Thursday, a purple scabiosa, (he had to do some googling to figure out what type of flower that one was) and a doodle of a magnifying glass.
When he walks into class on Friday to see another cup of coffee and another flower on his desk he just smiles and walks straight over to look at the items.
This time he doesn't know the name of the flower, but it is, once again, purple. The drawing on the cup looks like a little chessboard, with black and white squares alternating and a chess piece drawn next to it.
Shuichi wanders over to Kaede's desk and places the flower down in front of her.
“Hey, do you know what type of flower this is?”
Kaede picks up the flower, and after a second her face visibly brightens.
“Oh! This is one of my favorite types of flowers! This is a purple gladiola.” She raises it to her face and inhales deeply. “They smell kind of like roses!”
“You can have it if you like.” The words slip out of Shuichi's mouth before he can think about it, and feels a little regretful.
He's been drying the flowers so that he can keep them, the colors remind him of Kokichi.
“I can't do that, it's a gift from your secret admirer! It's yours.” Kaede shakes her head.
“Well then just give it back to me at the end of the day. As long as you're careful with it I don't mind, I still have the coffee.” Shuichi shrugs and Kaede reluctantly agrees with a smile.
A little while after he gets back to his desk, Kokichi walks into the room and walks over to Shuichi.
“So, what's it toda- where's the flower?” Kokichi seems to freeze when he notices the absence of the purple flower that's usually on his desk or in his hand.
“Oh, I just gave it to Kaede. Today it's a purple gladiola, one of her favorites.” Shuichi smiles at Kokichi, who's gone as still as a rock.
Slowly, Kokichi’s smile turns sickeningly sweet, and Shuichi feels a foreboding feeling rising in his stomach.
“Well, I guess if Kayayday wanted something, you just couldn't say no, right?”
“Wha-”
“It's okay, I understand! Everyone knows that you two are attached at the hip. It's cute, really. Makes me want to vomit.” Kokichi’s voice is ice cold and cuts like a knife, and Shuichi is too shocked to say anything.
“Well I really must go, Kiibo’s over there and he looks like he really needs someone to entertain him, bye-bye Saihara-chan!” Kokichi runs over to Kiibo before Shuichi can say anything.
Shuichi feels like he just majorly fucked up- if only he knew how .
Kokichi avoids him for the rest of the day. It's not very obvious, if you don't know what to look for, or how he usually acts with Shuichi.
It's more like he treats Shuichi like everyone else, on the few occasions they do interact.
Shuichi had never quite realized how much nicer Kokichi is with him than most others. Instead of the usual slightly backhanded compliments, endearments, and support, he gets mild insults and the only time Kokichi uses the endearments is in a mocking lilt.
And he's lying.
Of course, Kokichi is almost always lying, but with Shuichi, the lies are usually smaller, less important. If Shuichi works at it long enough, Kokichi will usually allow enough to slip that Shuichi can put together a vague idea of what's bothering him. There's usually a bit of truth added in, and the lies are a bit more transparent.
Kinder.
And Shuichi can tell that he's lying. It would be disappointing if he couldn't tell, of course. After all the time he's spent trying to figure Kokichi out, unraveling his lies, not being able to tell that he's doing this much lying would be ridiculous. And he guesses that he managed to gain at least a bit of Kokichis trust over the time they've known each other.
And somehow managed to break said trust without even noticing.
At the end of the day, Kaede gives him back the purple gladiola with a sad smile, like she knows exactly what's going on.