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For the past three hours, Saihara had been dying on his bed, face down, groaning every now and then and feeling his face sweat into the sheets with how much he was pressing his nose into them.
Akamatsu, his best friend, had been sitting patiently on his couch flipping through a book she had to read for college.
If she was being honest, this wasn't her ideal way of spending time together. She sighed gently and closed her dry tome. Determined eyes roamed over Saihara's sorry state.
"Shuichi, this is ridiculous."
A muffled, weak response that she couldn't possibly understand.
The blonde put her hands on her hips. "Shuichi! You're being childish, what are you, eight? Are you eight now?"
"M ..."
"That's a yes, huh?"
"Mmm ..."
She huffed, frustration slowly taking over. Not like the hobby pianist had the patience of a saint in the first place, but Saihara was really pushing it.
"Three hours!" Akamatsu threw her hands in the air. "Three hours, Shuichi! And we're still not talking about this!"
The boy curled up pathetically. Was he trying to phase through the blankets or something?
"That's it, I'm pulling you out of bed."
"M!"
"Oh yes, I will! If you don't talk to me, I'll have to!"
"Mm ... m-?!"
Saihara had not expected her to be that strong.
Akamatsu grabbed his ankles and pulled, a strong jolt making his body fly halfway off the mattress.
"Whoa-!?" Akamatsu pulled a second time.
"K-K-Kaede, stop!"
"Tell me!" She demanded. Her face was pulled into a cute pout as she watched him struggle to keep his dignity.
"What happened?"
"W-wait, Kaede, seriously-"
Saihara scrambled to get a hold on anything, to not be thrown around like a ragdoll again, but he was neglecting his training sessions recently and his muscle growth wasn't anything to write home about, anyways ...
After flying off the bed and barely managing to land on his palms, he panicked. Akamatsu didn't seem to be letting this go anytime soon.
"Fine, stop! S-Stop!" He exclaimed.
"I- I kissed him!"
Akamatsu gasped.
She let go of Saihara's ankles as though the touch had burned her skin. "No," she said.
Saihara groaned miserably. He buried his face back into the mattress, sitting on the floor and wrapping his arms around his head.
"Yes," he replied, muffled but at least loud enough and with all the desperation he had been wallowing in.
"Shuichi ... why?!"
"What do you mean, 'why'? He's ... he played dirty!"
Akamatsu cocked a brow. "Uh-huh?"
Saihara sighed deeply and nodded to himself before finally sitting up. Like a normal gay person. Akamatsu was almost proud if she hadn't been in the room watching Saihara's admittedly valid pity party. He looked at her like a kicked puppy.
"Okay, I'll ... I'll t-tell you."
And so he did.
Ever since the first time they met, Kokichi Ouma was an enigma in Saihara's eyes.
A mystery that he was itching to solve, that was consuming his thoughts and invading his dreams at night.
And apparently, Ouma took an interest in him as well, judging from how many times he'd ask to hang out - even though he was betting his life most of the times? It was fun.
Ouma was that little something that he had been missing in his life.
Ever since knowing him, Saihara was living, not just existing.
He was ecstatic when Ouma took his outstretched hand for the first time. He was happy when he was allowed to hug the other boy as a casual greeting, proud, that he was opening up more and more around the shy detective in training.
Suddenly, Saihara was invincible in this world.
Suddenly, this world wasn't black and white anymore, but grew into grey and brown and sepia, then purple and blue and pink and so many colours inbetween.
It must have been somewhere around that time that Saihara realized he was in love.
And this morning, when he was walking to his first class, Ouma sneaked up on him from behind.
Saihara yelped, almost jumping in surprise as a loud smack made his body jolt.
"Morning, Shumai!"
"O-Ouma-kun?!"
But all he could do was staring at his very amused friend who was grinning like he had just won the biggest prize at his beloved carnival and waved nonchalantly, skipping ahead to class and ignoring how red Saihara's cheeks were - probably all four of them.
Akamatsu snorted. "He spanked you?"
"He slapped my ass," Saihara confirmed in a wail of misery. His friend chuckled.
"A-Anyways ..."
The rest of his day had been relatively normal, Ouma was hanging around him like a moth drawn to a flame, but Saihara was sure he was annoying Ouma more than the smaller could ever annoy him.
They were playing chess on the rooftop during lunch break.
Saihara loved their games because usually, it was just the two of them. Ouma seemed to enjoy the silence and he actively seeked it out more often than Saihara had expected from someone as energetic as him. But he soon realized how much of Ouma was a facade he put on to cope with stress, how often he needed some time to calm down. He was exceptionally talented in speaking and had very good people skills, however Saihara knew by now that this didn't mean Ouma wanted to push himself over his limits. No, he knew and valued his limits, never overstepping them in the way Saihara would keep doing it with his own ones.
And that was another thing he admired.
When Ouma triumphantly kicked Saihara's king off the board with his index finger and a cute giggle, he knew that he had irrevocably fallen for him.
Saihara leaned forward and cupped Ouma's face, gently palming his soft cheeks and watching how those beautiful purple eyes widened in wonder.
Ouma's rightful winner rambling had stopped the second he was held in this unexpected way, lips still slightly parted and a sliver of white teeth showing through.
"Good job," Saihara whispered breathlessly, noting how Ouma's eyelids fluttered invitingly.
"Thanks," he whispered back, not daring to move an inch.
And just like that, before Saihara's brain could possibly catch up with the situation at hand, it now knew how soft and warm Ouma's lips were.
How gently their lips melted against each other, how he tasted like salt and salmon from the onigiri Saihara had bought him for lunch.
"Ooooo," Akamatsu cooed teasingly, a smug grin on her face that embarrassed Saihara further.
He avoided his eyes and twiddled his thumbs. "Kaede, respectfully, please shut up," he whined.
She snorted. "So? What happened then?"
"... nothing."
When Ouma suddenly pulled back, Saihara had to take some seconds to come back to reality.
He blinked a few times as though confused, the spot in front of him empty and the door to the roof shutting close in a hurry.
"Ouch." Akamatsu slowly started to understand why this was such a drama for her friend.
She empathically put a hand on his shoulder. "So what are you gonna do now?"
"I ..." Saihara paused shortly. "... I kind of wanted to ask you about this. It's just, ah, I have no clue how to talk to him after this."
"Understandable."
Saihara nodded. "Should I apologize? Do people usually do that? Should I have asked him for his first kiss? I-Is that - do people do that?"
"Not-" Akamatsu blinked. "Uh, what did you say? His first-"
"Y-Yes?"
"Oh my god, Shuichi."
"It's that bad, huh ... ?"
"I don't know!" Akamatsu jumped to her feet, startling Saihara with the sudden movement.
"It might be! You should definitely talk to him about it!"
"I can't!"
"Shuichi Saihara, I will make you!"
"Please don't."
"Saihara."
Oof. Last names now, huh?
Saihara let his head hang. "I'll ... maybe I'll bake him a cake. He loves sprinkles."
"Make sure you put letters on it, like 'Sorry for your loss'."
"That just sounds like someone died ..."
"How about 'Sorry that I kissed you'?"
"Kaede ..."
"'Sorry that I took your first time without asking'?"
"You're doing it on purpose."
"I am, but he might find it funny."
Saihara pondered. "I ... I might go with 'Sorry about the kiss'."
Akamatsu grinned. "Put a meme on it, too."
"That ... honestly might be a good idea. He might actually find it funny."
"See? It's alright." Akamatsu smiled and Saihara's thoughts were suddely brightened by fresh hope.
He smiled back, more cautiously with his stomach in knots and adrenaline in his veins.
"Thank you," he sighed. It felt easier to breathe now, too. "I think a cake will be good. I can stare at it instead of his disappointed face."
"That's the spirit. Now shoo, shoo! Let's go find Tojo-san!"
They found her soon after. As expected of Tojo, the cake turned out amazing.
All Saihara could do now was hope for the best.
