The New Motive

Happy Birthday

By the time they'd finished decorating the cake, Shuichi and Kokichi's clothes were covered in flour and cake batter, their faces and hands smeared with frosting. And the kitchen itself was faring no better.

"Oh, crap. Shu, your shirt," the shorter laughed, pointing at it.

"Yours isn't exactly perfect either, Ko," the bluette replied.

"Aww. Was that a nickname I heard?" he asked, a faint pink color dusting over his face. "That's so cute."

"Well, I mea- it's just-"

"It's fine. I said I liked it," Kokichi smiled. "Oh. Quickly, go sit down. I got to do something real quick."

"Bu-"

"Go on."

The detective quickly gave up on trying to convince the other otherwise and went to go sit down in the living room after changing his clothes and washing his face in the bathroom. And when he did, he couldn't seem to find where the shorter had gone.

He didn't have to worry for too long though because as soon as he did the one in question came out of the kitchen with the cake they'd made on a platter of sorts, grinning happily.

"Happy Birthday," he began singing cheerfully as he carried it out to the table, several candles glowing brightly on top of it. "Make a wish," he instructed as he concluded his singing, watching the other eagerly.

He hesitated at first, then took a breath and blew out the candles.

"Yay!" the violette said clapping. "What'd you wish for?"

"Well, I can't just tell you."

"Aww. Why not?"

"'Cause then it won't come true, silly."

At that, the supreme leader pouted, but he was quick to recover, getting up to retrieve plates from the kitchen.

"Alrighty then! Ready to cut it?"

. . .

That evening Kokichi ended up dragging the other back to their room and seating him on the edge of the bed while he went to go find something.

"What are you looking for?"

"Your gift, duh."

"Y- you really don't have to d- do that, you know," he explained as the blood began rushing to his face again and he turned away slighty.

"Aww, but I want to," he said happily. "Now, close your eyes and hold out your hands."

"Bu-"

"Please."

"Alright then. It's not alive or anything, right. I don't have to worry about hurting it?"

"Oh, I don't know," he joked as he finally found what he was looking for. "Maybe."

"Kokichi, you know I can't take care of an animal right now. Did you really?"

"Just close your eyes and stop peeking."

"I can barely take care of myself, I can't-" but just then the other had dropped something into his hands carefully. He tried to feel it to figure out what it was, carefully moving his hand across it. Then there was a shift in it's weight as he fumbled to keep it from falling, clenching his eyes shut in case he broke it aleady.

"Geez, Shumai. Careful."

"Mm-hmm," he nodded as he slowly opened his eyes to look at what it was, gasping at the sight. "You didn't. You- I- Kokichi?"

"I wasn't sure which ones you'd like so I grabbed a few. You know, for variety and such."

"These are amazing," he praised the other, looking through the stack of novels excitedly, but when he got to the bottom,  he paused. "Is this . . . Is this my copy?"

"It is now," he grinned.

"No, really. Is it?"

"Well, . . . Maybe."

"You didn't."

"I might've," the violette teased.

"Is that why you went back?"

"Maybe," he admitted. "Sorry about your leg by the way. I know it's healed and whatever now, but it was kinda my fault. I didn't expect you to chase after me I guess. But points for me 'cause keeping them all hidden from you this whole time was not an easy task, let me tell you. Especially when you're a detective. I'm honestly surprised you didn't find them."

"It's alright," he said quietly, fighting back his tears of joy. "I love them."

Kokichi just smiled. During their time at the academy they'd only spoken about it a few times, the detective's love of novels and such, that is. Even so, every once and a while, usually after everyone was asleep, the violette'd sneak down to the library and look for them, setting a few aside for the other as he went. And right before they left he was sure to get his copy of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, 'cause why not, right?

Now's when the liar would usually make a joke about it being nothing or that he was overreacting or something, and he was about to. But just as he went to he was interrupted and turned speechless, because all of a sudden Shuichi'd set his gift down and pulled the other into a tight embrace.

"I- I uh, Sh- Shuichi?" He didn't stutter very often, so naturally the detective caught onto this.

"It's alright. Thank you, really. Today's been amazing, thanks to you. I didn't even remember, honestly. But this is, by far, better I could have asked for."

"You r- really like it?"

"Of course," he said, pulling away from the hug to look at him. "Thank you."

The shorter male just stood there, unable to find the words to continue.

"You're welcome?" Shuichi offered.

"Uh-huh," he nodded, still unable to form the words to agree with him.

The other just laughed happily before kissing him deeply. It took a second for the shorter to react, but soon enough he melted into it, too, crawling up to sit in the bluette's lap at the end of the bed before pushing him back onto it.

The shorter sat up to take off his shirt and Shuichi looked away, a dark red color taking over his features.

"W- what are you doing?"

"Hmm? Oh, it's kinda hot, but I wanted to cuddle. That's cool with you, right?"

"I- uh, yeah. No problem," he agreed.

"Y'know what? You're cute when you're like this," he smirked, tossing his top into a corner of the room and laying down on top of him, snuggling close. "You don't have to be weird about it though. You can hug me back."

"O- oh, sorry," he stammered, wrapping his arms around the other, noticing how soft his skin was and calming down a bit. One hand rested on the other's bare back as the other began petting his hair gently. And after a short while their breathing began syncing up, too. He found the whole situation to be strangely therapeutic, to say the least.

And after a while they fell asleep, not even paying any mind to the thunder storm that growled lowly outside.