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Ushio checks his searches one, two, three more times before putting his phone into sleep mode and laying back, closing his eyes as he breathes out a dreamy sigh. There'll be more late works posted eventually, there always are, but for now he can just relax and let everything he's seen today soak into his mind.
November 12th is always a busy day for him online, especially when it falls on a school day. It's not too hard to keep up with the posts on most holidays, but this one he celebrates a day later than most, leaving a huge backlog on top of all the works being posted late on top of all the works he has to reread…
His musing is cut off by a growl from his stomach. Right, he hadn't eaten most of his bento because he wanted to spend his lunch break scrolling, hadn't he? He should probably… no, wait, he'd given the rest to Idiotake to make him shut up on the way home. Shit. Dinner shouldn't be too much longer, based on the time, but spending most of the day looking at and reading about chocolate wasn't exactly the best for driving off hunger, even if he didn't have the biggest sweet tooth.
A quick snack should be fine—if Kamina hears his stomach growl, he'll definitely insist on giving him a larger portion, which is just embarrassing, so hopefully he can get something from somewhere other than the kitchen. Toguro usually has a bunch, right? Idiotake owes him now anyway.
"Ah, have you finished?"
As Ushio starts to get up, he hears Muneuji's voice, and looks to see him polishing his helmet as he often does at this time of night. "For now, yeah. Sorry, did you need something?"
"No, you just seemed more entranced today than usual. Did something happen?"
Ushio plays with his hair. "Kinda? Just needed to catch up on Pocky Day. Holidays always bring in lots of new stuff, takes a while to go through it all."
Muneuji tilts his head. "Pocky Day? I've never heard of a holiday like that."
…Ah. He's never brought it up, has he? Not that it'd be a huge issue to do so, but with how miniscule it is in comparison to Muu-chan, mentioning it always seemed unnecessary. "Well, it's more of a tradition than a holiday. It… was yesterday, since the '1's in the date look like pocky sticks, so some people like to celebrate or whatever. I don't really care, but it's nice to see new works."
"Yesterday…" Muneuji brings a thoughtful hand to his chin. "I see. Nobody's ever told me my birthday falls on a holiday."
Of course they haven't—anyone who's even just spared a glance at Muu-chan should know his birthday is far too important to even think about anything else. Ushio doesn't generally hold much faith in humanity, but it's nice to know that this, at least, is something they all understand.
Muneuji continues thinking. "Pocky sticks… those were… ah, that's right!" Carefully putting his helmet to one side, he walks over to where he'd put all the presents he got from students at their school, swiftly locating eight boxes.
…Scratch that last thought, then.
"I always thought they must be a common birthday gift," he says, "but I suppose people actually found them appropriate for the date. How interesting."
"Yeah, I guess…" Ushio trails off as he squints at the boxes, noticing a few of them are open. There's no reason for Muneuji to open multiple at once, so… "Did they give you open ones? You should throw those out, no telling what might be in them."
"Oh, no, I can assure you they're safe—they were opened in front of me, after all, though I'm not really sure why… they all seemed surprised when I said I could do it myself, and wouldn't be eating them until later anyway."
Oh, that's really funny. Ushio holds in a snicker. "They probably wanted to play the Pocky Game with you." And ended up just giving him whole boxes with no reward. Serves them right.
Muneuji looks at him quizzically. Ushio realises he now has to explain this, too.
"Uh, it's called a game, but in reality it's just a cheap way of getting someone to kiss you." Not in the works he reads, of course, but this situation was definitely simple as that—those randos probably got too intimidated by Muu-chan's beauty to ask outright. "Two people start at opposite ends of the stick, and take turns biting towards each other until their lips touch. You 'lose' if you chicken out and pull away before that happens, but you'd have to be a real idiot to play it in the first place if you're going to do that." Except in the doujin Sanseiu-sensei released last year, of course, where Ouji's feelings of frustration had—
"Shall we play, then?"
…Huh?
Muneuji selects one of the open boxes and tears the inner packaging, paying no mind to Ushio's lack of response.
"Muu-chan, did you not hear me? It's just a way to kiss."
"No, it's a game of restraint and calculation, where you must consider the most optimal bite size to both intimidate your opponent and force them into being the one to ultimately decide whether to kiss or pull away."
What?
"Sure, but…" Ushio fiddles with his watch, not looking directly at him, "is there, like, any fun in playing a game where the loser's already decided? It's not like I'd be able to…"
"Precisely." Muneuji whips out a stick with a smile on his face. "You would not be able to close the gap, and neither would I. Eliminating the possibility of a draw means we shall have a true match of pocky."
"…"
There's not really any arguing with that. For multiple reasons, but primarily because it goes without saying that Muu-chan wouldn't touch him—the actual reason Ushio's hesitating is far too embarrassing to say out loud. He could probably get away with just saying he doesn't want to, but…
He looks directly at Muneuji again, smiling softly as he waits for Ushio to speak.
…He really can't say no to him.
"We can give it a go, I guess."
"Wonderful." Muneuji gives a pleased hum as he sets the box aside and sits on Ushio's bed. "Now, I probably don't have to say this, but since we'll be getting rather close, do try to make sure you stay still when it's my turn."
"Well, yeah—"
"Got it? Don't move an inch."
Ushio raises an eyebrow. "Dunno why you're being so insistent, but sure, I wasn't going to anyway?"
Muneuji doesn't say anything in return and presses the end with no chocolate to Ushio's lips, which suddenly reminds him that he was going to get something to eat before this conversation started. His hunger causes him to almost bite down on it without thinking, but he catches himself, and lets it rest inside his mouth as Muneuji brings the other end to his own.
"Ready? I'll let you go first."
'Let', he says. How generous.
Pocky sticks aren't exactly long, which makes this rather nerve-wracking—Ushio is used to Muneuji's face, sure, but that doesn't mean he's immune to it, especially not in a situation like this. But averting his gaze or closing his eyes would definitely make it weird, so he has no choice but to stare right at Muneuji as he takes a tiny bite that doesn't even reach the chocolate. It feels a bit pathetic, but in spite of his stomach tempting him to take a bigger one, it's probably best to take it slow at first, or… something.
Muneuji doesn't take his turn right away, simply staring back at Ushio for a few seconds. Maybe he's also secretly nervous? If so, Ushio can only hope he's hiding it as well as Muneuji is, because it doesn't show at all.
Then, Muneuji closes his eyes, opens his mouth slightly—
And before Ushio can blink, Muneuji's face is right in front of his.
Ushio feels his eyes widen and muscles tense, blush rising to his cheeks as his brain tries to process what's happening. Muneuji's close enough that he can feel his breath on his skin, can see every detail of his perfectly shaped face, can tell that any closer would have them touch.
But as he was told, he doesn't move an inch.
It feels like both an eternity and no time at all passes until Muneuji's eyes open slightly, and…
*snap*
He pulls away as Ushio sits there shocked, taking a moment to break up the stick in his mouth before bringing a hand to his lips and giggling softly. "Oh my, looks like I lost."
Ushio blinks, then relaxes his posture, breathing out a sigh as he carefully and reluctantly takes the remaining pocky out of his own mouth (even if it's Muu-chan, he doesn't want to eat something with another person's germs. He thinks he sees Muu-chan eye it for a second, but—probably just his imagination.)
"What, did you decide you wanted all the chocolate to yourself? What happened to having a 'true match of pocky'?"
"Hm." Muneuji takes a moment to finish eating. "These sticks are rather nice. I'm surprised you've never made any for my birthday before."
Not answering the question, huh. Well, whatever. "I figured you wouldn't be a fan of the chocolate-biscuit ratio." That, and it just feels weird to acknowledge something else happening on the same day.
"True, it could be better, but your biscuits are also delicious, Uu-chan. I'm sure you can perfect a recipe before my birthday next year."
Ushio scoffs, smiling. "As if I'll need that long."
Their conversation continues naturally as always, calming the weird feeling in Ushio's gut and shoving the situation to the back of his mind. Sure, the game is always shown romantically in fiction—hell, just playing it at all may as well be a kiss, even if they pull away—but this was reality, and clearly just one of Muneuji's whims. There's no point dwelling on it, because there's no way he was thinking of it like that. Right? Right.
…He may not have lost, but that doesn't mean he can ever win against Muu-chan, either.
He's still hungry.