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Shuichi had gotten used to dealing with Kokichi Ouma. He had learned to mostly tell the difference between his truths and his lies, he had become adept at deciphering the difference between his mischievous smiles and his malicious ones, and he could even consider them on good terms. Maybe not friends, exactly, but definitely not enemies. Kokichi liked teasing him, but it was nowhere near as harsh as he was with Kaito and Maki, nor was it as insistent as what he did with Kiibo.
He didn't understand Kimochi Ouma at all. For all the ways that the twins were alike, there seemed to be just as many things that did not translate from one to the other. Kokichi switched expressions as fast as blinking, while Kimochi smiled almost no matter what. Kokichi lied every other sentence while Kimochi seemed determined at times to speak nothing but the truth. They were both cheerful and mischievous, but Kokichi was high energy while Kimochi was calm.
At least, that was the side of them he'd seen at school. Outside of school, he'd seen a lot more of the younger Ouma. A frightening, chaotic, threatening, friendly side of him that Shuichi had just as hard of a time trying to untangle as he did trying to avoid. Or wanting to avoid, if he was honest. As much as he never sought Kimochi's company outside of school (in class was another story), he still often found himself dragged into it.
This only escalated once the Ouma's were reunited with their siblings and Kimochi started coming to Hope's Peak more iften. It became that much more frequent that he was pulled into Kimochi's orbit and he spent that much more time around all the Ouma siblings in general. In fact, his friend group had greatly expanded just based on being in the circle of Kimochi's many associates.
He found himself spending more time with Angie than ever expected, as she seemed to be Kimochi's go to for chaos if he wasn't planning something with his brother, while Rantaro seemed to be his go to for calm. Both Ouma siblings enjoyed Gonta's presence, but Shuichi got the feeling that Kimochi tried not to "steal" anyone that he considered Kokichi's friend. He also talked to Kirumi often, making requests and small talk with her that was such a pronounced difference from her interactions with Kokichi that it still made the class do a double take.
"What are you looking at sidekick?" Kaito asked as he slung a heavy arm over his shoulder. Shuichi shied away from him a little, still not completely used to the way Kaito invaded his space like he belonged there.
"N-nothing," he mumbled, looking away and hoping that his hat would obscure the path of his gaze. His hope was in vain as Maki looked across the room and glared at Kimochi and Kirumi. "You let that brat bother you too much."
"Um..."
"Never thought I'd see the day that someone was worse than Kokichi," Kaito said, scratching the back of his head.
"I... wouldn't say that," he mumbled. As much as he had been gaining confidence, he still found it kind of difficult to go against his friends. If not because Kaito was so forceful, then because Maki could be downright terrifying, and if not for those reasons then because he didn't want to disappoint Kaede.
"Are you kidding me?" Kaito questioned, looking down at him. "He's always picking on you. I'd smack him one if I didn't think Kokichi would make me regret it for the rest of the school year."
"He's... not that bad..." he refuted softly. Honestly, Kimochi was downright pleasant most of the time, especially compared to Kokichi. The difference was that when Kimochi snapped, he seemed to do so on a dime, without any warning or build up. The fact that Kimochi had a vendetta against anyone that picked on his brother didn't help when Kokichi had spent so much time alienating himself from the class, but with Kaito and Maki in particular.
Maki stared at him for a moment and he avoided her gaze. "You're too nice," she concluded.
"You don't need to let him drag you around all the time," Kaito told him. "If you need someone to stand up to him, I'll take care of it."
That was part of the problem, really. Kaito was always trying to insert himself between Shuichi and Kimochi, which irritated Kimochi and widened the gap between the two even more than the one between Kokichi and Kaito. Shuichi had gotten used to Kimochi seeking him out and pulling him along, he didn't even hate it really, not that his friends believed him. They couldn't understand how someone they hated could actually be kind of fun sometimes and not that bad.
As if sensing that he was being talked about, Kimochi turned his gaze toward them. He was always smiling, but Shuichi found himself paying more and more attention to that smile, trying to read it, to take it apart and find out what it meant. For a moment, Kimochi's eyes were only on him, and the smile he was given was something secret and soft that Shuichi had no idea how to pick apart. Then his eyes flicked to Kaito and Maki at his sides, his lips twitched, and Shuichi knew that the meaning of the smile had changed even if he couldn't read it.
Kimochi skipped over and slammed his hands on Shuichi's desk, making him jump even though he saw it coming. "Shuichi! Give me your eyes!"
"What?" The confused words were out of his mouth before he'd even processed them, recoiling from Kimochi's bright, excited gaze.
"The fuck?" Kaito was looking at Kimochi like he had utterly lost his mind, not unlike the look he sometimes gave Kokichi.
Maki outright glared at him. "Is that a threat?"
Kimochi didn't even look at her. "Not talking to you," Kimochi said simply. Then he leaned down so that he was peering at Shuichi from under his hat. "Come on, Shu! I want your eyes. You'll do it, right?"
"Umm... I'm not really sure what you're talking about, Kimochi."
Kimochi pouted, sighed, and let himself sprawl out bonelessly on the top of Shuichi's desk. It was such a Kokichi move that it made him giggle, earning looks from Kaito and Maki that made him quietly muffle the sound. "Shuichi's eyes are so pretty. I want pretty eyes too."
"Don't go talking about stealing people's eyes, you freak," Kaito yelled. A pen bounced off the back of Kaito's head, making him turn toward the opposite side of the classroom.
"Oopsie, looks like Kiibo's pen decided to attack you," Kokichi laughed.
"What? You used my pen?" Kiibo complained.
Kaito took off in that direction, running off after Kokichi, being joined shortly by Kiibo. Maki sighed, getting up and leaving, though whether that was to get Kaito or just to escape the noise, Shuichi wasn't sure.
He turned his attention back to Kimochi once they were alone. "I'm... not sure what you were trying to tell me, Mochi. Did you... want me to do your makeup?" Kimochi nodded, watching Shuichi with the brightest puppy eyes he had ever seen. "I... suppose I could do that."
"Yay!" Kimochi cheered. "I'm so excited! Let's go now!"
"What? Now?" He barely got his objection out before he was pulled from his chair.
"An An, Let's go!"
Angie got to her feet holding a small bag. "Righto!"
Shuichi never got used to being invited to the Ouma household. The first few times had been more like a kidnapping than anything else, as Kimochi had placed a blindfold over his eyes and hadn't given him any chance to decline. Now when he was dragged over, still without the chance to refuse, he was spared the blindfold.
Sometimes Kimochi liked to smuggle him in like he was contraband. Shuichi would have found this odd if Kimochi wasn't living with Kokichi, but taking that into account, it could just as easily be for fun as to avoid someone seeing him. Kimochi was surprisingly low maintenance when he was by himself, content to let Shuichi do homework or look over case files in peace, as long as they were sitting close enough to touch. If they were apart, Shuichi at the desk while Kimochi was on the bed, it was a countdown until the other would decide to bother him.
That was the case now, as Kimochi closed his book and looked up from the pile of pillows that he had laid himself over to catch Shuichi's eyes. "Do you want to kiss me?"
Shuichi's hand slipped across the paper he was writing, resulting in a long stroke of ink running off the page, as well as the pen slipping out of his hands. He turned to face Kimochi so fast that he almost flung himself out of the chair. "What?"
Kimochi didn't answer, just watched him with a blank look. Kokichi's face often did this and Shuichi couldn't see any difference between them when either of them made this face, but he knew just from exposure that the expression didn't mean the same thing between them. Staring was just something that Kimochi did. He watched people, watched Shuichi, in a way that had made him nervous for a very long time and that he had only recently become used to. It was obvious what Kimochi had said, so he wouldn't repeat himself. That's what the stare was in this case, waiting for Shuichi to move past the reaction phase and onto the answer.
Shuichi cleared his throat, hoping that his mind would follow suit. "Aren't you dating Kaede's twins?" he asked.
"Yes," Kimochi answered. Just that. Just yes. No clarification or explanation. Just leaving Shuichi out to dry as that question hung between them, as he felt his face become more and more red, as Kimochi stared at him.
"U-um..." Shuichi thought that maybe his brain had short circuited.
Kimochi sighed, expression returning to his face as he sank further into his pillow pile. "It's a yes or no question, Shuichi."
That in no way made it an easy question to answer. Nor did it give him any information on why he was asking or what the answer was for. Shuichi guessed that was why he had cleared his face in the first place, to withhold that information. As much as his friends didn't want to believe it, Kimochi was a fairly honest person. So... it was probably an honest question. Probably asked for... the obvious reasons one would ask such a question.
"Um..." he said again, knowing that he was wearing a wide eyed deer in headlights look, but unable to quite stop it. That made Kimochi's slight smile widen even more, but he still waited silently instead of throwing Shuichi a lifeline of any kind. He cleared his throat, or tried to. It took him longer than he would have liked to sound like anything resembling composed and even then the words that came out of him were more akin to a squeak. "Yes?"
Kimochi nodded, putting his book to the side and crawling away from his pillow hoard. Once he was sitting on the edge of the bed he asked, "Now?"
"Um?" His voice was edging near high pitched again and he wasn't sure he liked the way it made Kimochi's smile widen even more.
"Because you can," Kimochi told him, finally giving him something even if it was the bare minimum at this point.
This time the sound that came out of him didn't even make words. Kimochi just laughed at him, pushing himself off the bed and smoothly sliding himself onto Shuichi's lap.
"...um..."
Kimochi cupped Shuichi's face in his hands. "I enjoy seeing you like this."
And what did that mean?
"But, I'm gonna turn you off now, okay?"
Before Shuichi could even process that, Kimochi had leaned forward and stolen his lips. Softly, hungrily, pressing his full body forward and making Shuichi grab hold of his hips for fear that he would be swept away by the possessive intensity of it. Shuichi whimpered as Kimochi's thumb brushed behind Shuichi's ear, as lips massaged his own, as he was cradled in a warm, inescapable embrace.
Shuichi found that his brain was indeed turned off for a little while.