Pocky

(I can't believe this is official art-)

(Either that or it's just REAALLLYYYY good fanart)

Kou slumped in his desk chair, sighing from the exhaustion of studying. It was a Sunday night, and the rest of his family was already sleeping. He just figured he'd get some extra studying in. Couldn't hurt. Kou just couldn't stop worrying about Mitsuba, even though he'd seen him earlier that day. Mitsuba had been able to leave the school now, but he was the only one of the school mysteries capable of doing that for some reason. Kou knew that his friend was very capable of taking care of himself, but that wouldn't stop those same damn thoughts. 'Does he have enough to eat?' 'Is he hungry?' 'Is he lonely?' 'Is he safe?'

Thoughts like that kept going through his mind, until he couldn't even focus anymore. It was almost painful. Kou grumbled, even though he was tired, he wanted to go see Mitsuba. But he told himself that he could see his friend at school in the morning and he needed to get rest.

He eventually stopped arguing with himself and slid in his warm bed, trying to fall asleep as quickly as possible so that he wouldn't start regretting his decision. But still, it was so hard to try and fall asleep for the blonde boy. He just couldn't stop worrying. He knew that Mitsuba would probably go all emo on him and say stuff like "Why do you care?" to Kou. But just the thought of that made Kou clench his fists in anger. Because I just do! Why don't you care about yourself, huh? Why? Mitsuba...

That made a certain realization hit Kou like a truck.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkk why him?!

*Skip to the morning brought to you by the one donut Hanako hasn't eaten yet*

Kou grumbled, hitting 'stop' on the alarm clock on his phone. He forced himself to get out of his warm bed and eat breakfast, all the while worrying about Mitsuba as if he was his mother or something. As Kou got into his school uniform, he remembered his realization from the previous night and the tips of his ears turned red. No no no no no no that's sooo not how you feel about him nooooooo!! Kou denied to himself. He looked down at the ground in embarrassment, even though there was nobody around.

Kou made his, Teru's, and Tiara's lunch for them while the rest of his family ate breakfast. He'd gotten up a bit earlier than them to eat his own. He snuck a small amount of candy in his own, planning to share with his friends. The candy, in particular, was strawberry pocky. It was one of his favorites. The light pink color reminded him of well...

NO NO NO NO NO IT'S NOT LIKE THAT!! AT ALL!! AHHHH SHUT UP ME!!!

Kou started shaking his head frantically, and Teru glanced over, worried. Kou practically threw their lunches at them and ran off with his own. He ran to the school, hoping to basically outrun his thoughts. When he approached the gates, Mitsuba hugged Kou's arm and smiled. "Good morning, Minamoto-kun!" Kou yelped as his cheeks started slightly turn pink. "Oh- Uhm- Hi Mitsuba,"

His friends Yokoo and Satou stared at him weirdly, seeing as how he was conversing with a ghost, but they brushed it off as Kou was just normally odd. "Wanna hang out during your school breaks today?" Mitsuba asked, floating about next to Kou. He seemed uncharacteristically clingy to Kou, which threw him off. "Sure. Did you get a heart to eat this morning?" Mitsuba nodded.

The thing was, Mitsuba had been secretly trying to make things easier on Kou by hunting for himself, no matter how much he whined about it. It felt wrong to him to have Kou find food for him when the boy already had enough on his plate. Although, for Mitsuba, no matter how busy Kou was, he'd always tease him. Always.

Kou sighed as he continued to walk to his first class and Mitsuba continued to follow him. "Didja miss me last night, hella lame traffic safety earring?" He teased. "Ye-No." "What was that?" Mitsuba jokingly poked Kou's shoulder and demanded an answer. "I didn't miss you, girly face." Kou lied. Of course he missed him. It was kind of a let down to Mitsuba though.