@saiouweek day 6: appreciation day
inspired by this post that I absolutely love by @chaseshka
“Good morning, my beloved Saihara!”
Shuichi had a terrible idea. Terrible? Curious? Strange? He wasn’t really thinking about the adjectives. Kokichi greeted him with terms of endearment on a regular basis, and while Shuichi didn’t know why, one certain thought was starting to poke at the back of his mind, and he felt a nerve to test it.
“Good morning, my beloved Ouma,” Shuichi responded, the smallest of smiles on his face. He dared, just slightly, to imitate the subtly smug expression Kokichi had shown him so often.
Kokichi froze. Right on the spot, he only stood there, his mouth hanging just slightly open. He blinked a single time before disappearing so quickly he may as well have teleported, not another word.
This was it. Shuichi had won every war to come. Shuichi one, Kokichi zero. At least, this was what he wanted to think. It couldn’t have been that simple–no, not with that inkling that soon appeared in his head and told him it wasn’t over.
Wasn’t over how, he asked himself. No, Kokichi wouldn’t give up that easily. Was that what it was? No, not that either. Shuichi wasn’t done. He didn’t feel done. Kokichi leaving him alone was anticlimactic. Why would Kokichi give up so easily, anyway?
Shuichi was definitely overthinking all of this. Kokichi disappeared one time, but now that Shuichi had finally gotten rid of him, he wanted to know why that worked. Maybe this was what really made him a detective.
Another tiny thought tried to urge him towards considering that he wanted to see if he could insinuate more of a reaction from Kokichi than just a poker face, but Shuichi didn’t really want to listen to that one.
“Ouma, you really freaked me out at breakfast when you ran away like that,” Shuichi told him later after slaving over tracking him down for about an hour. “Why did you run away?” Maybe Shuichi was already playing with fire, trying to lie to the resident compulsive liar. Freaked out? He wouldn’t exactly describe it anything like that.
“Ah, Saihara!” Kokichi chirped, clearly having hit the reset button on his feelings already. “I had to pee. You weren’t worried about me, were you?”
“Well… of course I was,” Shuichi replied. Oh, he was on fire now. His heart was already pounding hard enough that he could almost feel his blood circulating. “You completely disappeared out of nowhere.”
“Or maybe you were suspicious of me?” Kokichi asked instead, bringing a finger to his lips. “You’re a terrible liar, Saihara.”
“Or maybe I just wanted to see you,” Shuichi told him instead. Huh, something felt satisfying about that.
Kokichi’s grin grew into something otherworldly. Shuichi felt a wave of absolute terror, unsure of what to make of this. This wasn’t a horrible idea, right?
“Saihara, Saihara, Saihara,” Kokichi cooed, walking towards the detective until his back hit a wall. Even though he personally towered over Kokichi, the threat emanating off his person was incomprehensible. “You really want to play my own game against me, don’t you? You’re so adorable.”
Heat rushed to Shuichi’s face. Fight, or surrender? Shuichi was fairly used to being more passive and backing down in situations like this, but Kokichi, god, Kokichi–he was so curious.
“You weren’t expecting that, were you?” Shuichi asked him.
Kokichi let out a hum. His shadowed grin fell into a smirk that sent a chill down Shuichi’s spine. “Then again, I love games,” the supreme leader said. “Do you think you can outplay me, Saihara?”
Shuichi’s instincts were telling him otherwise, but the offer was so strangely tempting. Ignoring his anxious mind and sweating palms, he stood his ground. “Well, I haven’t run away so far, unlike you. Maybe I can,” he said.
“Ouch,” Kokichi said, pouting. “You’re so mean!” He broke into giggles. Shuichi noted that there was still very little distance between them, and his back was still against the wall. “You’re in for a whole new world of hell, my beloved Saihara. I simply… cannot wait to tear you apart.”
Shuichi’s heart skipped for a reason that he couldn’t articulate. Was he terrified? Yes, absolutely. Was he getting closer and closer to caring just a bit less? Maybe. There was something about Kokichi that made Shuichi less scared of the ideas spinning in his head, including the stupid one that was floating around at the moment.
Shuichi leaned down, cupping Kokichi’s cheek with one hand and laying a gentle kiss on the opposite side. “You’re on,” he uttered.
Kokichi’s face went completely blank again. If Shuichi wasn’t mistaken, his eyes were even slightly wide. Backing away, Shuichi turned to leave, unable to help displaying the slightest of smiles on his face.
Kokichi started to laugh again behind him. “… This is gonna be so much fun, Saihara,” he said.
